Becoming a Hero
by NightcrawlerLover5580
Summary: A girl with no memory is rescued, and has to find out who she is. This is the story of Gypsy. (I invented her. SO NO STEALING! Rated for language (mostly from Wolverine.))
1. Prolouge

To Become a Hero

Author's note: This is my first story, so please go easy on me. And most of the music I reference is probably Lindsey Stirling or another band that I like that's from a different country. If anyone wants to look up any of the songs, feel free to ask what they are, 'cause I'll be more than glad to tell you. I really like sharing my music. :)

Prologue

 _Running_... The first thing I remember is running... Feeling scared...

 _Then shouting_...

 _Heart pounding... Have to keep running... Run faster..._

 _Cornered. I'm cornered and can't move._ Too terrified to even scream.

Rough hands pulling, tearing my clothes off of me... Pain...

Most intense pain I've ever felt... Between my legs...

"Aaaahhhhh!", I scream my heart out, hoping, against all hope, that someone will rescue me.

"Hey!"

 _An unfamiliar voice. I don't know that voice, then the sound of, was that punches?_

I slide down the wall, leaning against my backpack, trying to keep the blackness from enveloping me. Trying to remember anything that could have happened before this. Nothing comes to mind as I start to sob from the intense, throbbing pain emanating from between my legs.

Gentle arms encircle me and try to lift me from the ground. A voice tries to get to me but I hardly hear two words before I completely pass out, remembering something in the last seconds of wakefulness. The words, "Lost girls find a way"...

oOo

My name is Gypsy.

This is my story.


	2. Ch 1: New Beginnings

To Become a Hero

Chapter One: New Beginnings

I open my eyes after what seems like forever. I'm looking up at the ceiling of a well lit little room. I look around, and see some sort of large monitor next to my bed, attached to me by my finger. The screen had a little red line that was going up and down and emitting a soft beeping noise that was starting to get on my nerves.

 _A heartbeat monitor_ , I realize, reaching to full the thing off of my finger. _I'm in some sort of medical bay, so whoever rescued me brought me here to make sure I'm okay and obviously really cares a lot. But what if whoever rescued me thinks that I'm a freak and doesn't want me around, so they lock me up in a cage?_

I leave the thing on my fingertip and try to sit up. When I finally manage to get halfway up, a somewhat intense throbbing from between my legs forces me back down.

 _I don't remember what my guardian angel looks like, because I passed out before I could see_ , I think. _I really wonder what he looks like. I know it was definitely a male. Those arms definitely felt male-ish to me._

As I'm thinking, a boy walks in. I see him, but don't pay attention because I'm lost in my thoughts.

 _What if whoever rescued me tries to rape me like those men in the alley?_ , I think. _I sure as heck hope not. That would be really wonky though, because if they went through all that trouble to rescue me, why would they do whatever actions I've already been rescued from_?

"So Lost Girl, can you speak, or do I have to become a telepat?", asks the boy, breaking me from my thoughts.

He was by far the most unique living creature I had ever laid eyes on. I could see that when he came closer, he had fur. It was short, and the most beautiful deep indigo blue. His elegant black hair hung loosely around his shoulders and had a tint to it that was the same color as his fur. He was rather lanky and tall, but when he came towards me, he walked with graceful strides. He also had interestingly shaped, three-toed feet, with two toes in the front and one toe where his heel should have been. And to top it all off, he even had a tail and fangs! He also had the most wonderful German-accented voice. I don't ever remember meeting a German, so I can't compare him to others.

"Vell, Lost Girl, since you haven't yet found your voice, my name iz Kurt Vagner, and I'd very much like to be your friend, seeing as you don't seem to have any," he said, holding out a three-fingered hand for me to shake.

I shook it, finally finding my voice enough to speak to him. "Thank you for the kind offer, Kurt Vagner, but I'll have to think about it", I reply, trying to be kind.

He smiles and hands me a tall glass of water. "Drink zis. You sound a bit dehydrated. It vill help you speak."

I take it, and drink the entire thing before handing the glass back to him.

 _Why is he calling me "Lost Girl" as if it's my name_ , I wonder as I'm drinking the water. _I'll have to ask him when I'm done. And gosh, does this water feel fantastic on my throat._

"So, Kurt Vagner, why exactly do you keep calling me "Lost Girl"? I just kind of wondered", I asked, trying my hardest to be polite.

"Vell, ze last zing you said before you passed out in my arms vas "Lost girls find a vay", in a bit of a sing-songy voice", he replied. "Also, you can just call me Kurt. It's making me a little bit uncomfortable for you to keep calling me by my last name. Usually people only do zat vhen I'm in a lot of trouble. Vhat iz your name?"

The question about my name caught me completely off guard. What was I supposed to say if I really didn't know the answer to the question? Fortunately, I was saved by two other men coming into the room right at that moment. One of them was most definitely a doctor, because he was wearing a white lab coat, but he had long, shaggy blue fur, very large hands and feet, and glasses. The other man was somewhat elderly, bald, and in a wheelchair. He looked like he had definitely lived a full life, but he had a kind face and eyes.

The blue furred man turned to me with a kind smile and said in a gentle voice, "So, the lost one has awoken at last. My name is Dr. Henry McCoy, and I'll be looking after you until you feel well enough to be up and about. How are you feeling?"

I'm not sure how to answer, so I shrug my shoulders. After what happened, I'm not sure if I can even trust another grown man again. He seems to understand my thoughts, even though he can't even hear them, just by the shrug. Dr. McCoy comes over and takes the heartbeat monitor off of my finger, and then tries to take my blood pressure. I pull away as he tries to put the thing on my arm, not sure if I can trust him.

" _Hank won't hurt you_ ", comes a gentle, calming, voice in my head. Wait, in my head?!

I shoot an alarmed look at Kurt, not sure what else to do. He nods towards the man in the wheelchair with a slight grin. I turn to the man, unsure of what to do next. I hesitantly let Dr. McCoy take my blood pressure and squeeze my eyes shut tight. I'm so scared that he's going to hurt me. When he's finished, I slowly open my eyes and look over at Kurt. He has the most wonderful look of understanding on his face, almost like he really knows how I feel in the deepest parts of my heart.

Most of the look, though, is in his eyes. They're the most glorious golden orbs, and the pure understanding and heartfelt sorrow. It's almost as if you can see all of the love, sorrow, pure joy, and just, life, in Kurts' eyes. Even though he has his tail, I think (even though I only just met him) that by far the most expressive thing about him is his eyes. He gives me a small, but hopeful, smile.

Dr. McCoy speaking is what finally brings me out of my own thoughts again. "Well, it seems to me that your vitals are all normal, and you should be free to get up and about. I do believe though, that the Professor would like to have some time with you and the young man that seems to have been your guardian angel (nods at Kurt). I will take my leave, and feel free to come out whenever you're ready." He gives me a kind smile and lopes, rather gracefully for one his size and bulk, out of the room.

"I'm dreadfully sorry for the intrusion into your mind earlier. You seemed quite distressed when Hank had to touch you. I'm Professor Charles Xavier, and I would like to ask how Kurt found you, as well as if you remember anything before that." As he spoke, in the same calm and soothing tone that I had heard in my head a few minutes ago, the man in the wheelchair, evidently now the Professor, rolled his chair next to the bed.

Kurt came over from the end of the bed after Professor Xavier settled his chair in place and adjusted the bed into a sitting position, then sat on the edge of it, close enough that I could reach out and hold his hand if I wanted to. I still don't trust the Professor, so I don't really want to talk to him. I shoot Kurt a look,knowing that I can trust him because he rescued me.

 _I don't want this man in my head again_ , I think. _I don't even remember who I am or where I came from, and the last thing I remember is getting raped. What if the Professor finds out something dark about my personality and tries to lock me in a cage like a freak?_

"Well, I seems to me that you're getting along with your guardian just fine," said Professor Xavier. "I hope that Kurt can help you overcome whatever obstacles you may have after what has happened to you. I don't wish to pry, but I would like to see what you can remember from before this entire incident."

"I don't remember anything from before he rescued me at all," I replied, gesturing toward Kurt as I spoke. "The last thing I remember is passing out in his arms. Really, you don't have to do anything. I'm telling you the absolute truth. I _would not_ lie to you."

Professor Xavier exchanged a look with Kurt then responded by saying, "I would at least like to look at your most recent memories, just to see exactly what you remember. Please understand that I'm just doing this to try to figure out where you came from. Hank and I have tried looking up some sort of files for you, but haven't yet come up with anything suggesting that you're even from the states."

I look him straight in the eyes. "I promise you," I tell him, with the most honesty I can possibly muster, "I don't remember anything before I was attacked. All I remember is that I had some sort of bag and case with me when I was running, and I would like to have them back. I'm sorry, but I would really like to know if I can trust you at all before you go poking around in my brain. I'm not saying this to be mean at all, I promise, but I don't know if I can even trust you yet."

"I understand that you're hesitant," he tells me. "I respect your wishes, and that if you don't wish for me to read your mind, I won't. But I would at least like to know if you have a name."

 _Holy crap!_ , I scream mentally. I _don't even know if I have a name! What do I do? Should I make one up?_

I look at the Professor, then at Kurt, completely unsure of what to do. Kurt seems to pick up on my inner turmoil, and reaches out, offering his hand to hold. I take it, knowing full well that he won't hurt me, and turn back to Professor Xavier.

"I-I don't have a n-name," I manage to stutter out. "I-I don't remember ever having one. I don't remember anything at all."

"Well," said the Professor, "Once you're able to trust us a bit more, we'll see about recovering your memories. For now, however, let's see if one of Kurt's friends has some clothes that will fit you, and get you cleaned up and fed. We'll progress from there. I'll leave you in Kurt's capable hands, and I hope you make at least one friend today." With that, he wheeled out, leaving Kurt and me in the room by ourselves.

Kurt turned to me once he had left with a questioning looks in his eyes, as if he wanted to give me the choice to stay in bed or to go upstairs.

"Well, I'll have to face everyone sooner or later," I said to Kurt's questioning look. "I mean, if one of you rescued me, it's not like I'm going to die up there, or anything. At least most of you are probably nice people."

In response to me, Kurt hopped off the edge of the bed and walked across the room. He grabbed something off of the shelf, and came back over to me. He unfolded it, and I realized it was a big, fuzzy, white blanket. Without a word passing between us, he draped it over my front and pulled the bed blankets from over me. Kurt gently wrapped the blanket securely around me, from shoulders to ankles, and lifted me into his arms.

With a small rush, we were in his room. _How does he do that?,_ I wonder. _It feels amazing. I'll bet he's a mutant. I'll bet I'm a mutant. Maybe that's why I feel like he's a kindred spirit. I like having him around._

He sets me gently on my feet, slowly releasing me. He releases me fully, looking unsure as to weather I can stand on my own. I can, other than the dull, but quickly fading, pain between my legs. I smile up at him in thanks. He relaxes, and smiles back, as a sort of 'you're welcome", I guess.

"I'm going to leave you here. Zis iz my room, and I von't make you leave until you feel ready," Kurt said kindly. "Vhenever your ready to do so, I'll go vith you. Vould you like a shower?"

I simply nod to everything he says. He leads me wordlessly over to the bathroom door, then walks over to the other side of the room to retrieve a towel and washcloth. Kurt comes back over and hands the desired items to me.

"Go and take a shower," Kurt tells me. "I'll go get my friend, and ve'll bring you some clothes." And with that, he teleports away.

I walk into the bathroom to get my bearings. I gladly peel off my my clothes and throw them on the floor, along with the blanket Kurt had wrapped around me. I climb in the shower and turn on the water. The feeling of actually being clean that the water brings me is the most wonderful thing I've felt all day.

 _I wonder what his friend is like,_ I think. _I hope she's as kind and gentle as Kurt is._

That's my last thought before closing my eyes and simply reveling in the water pouring over me.


	3. Ch 2: First Meetings

Chapter 2: First Meetings

As I reached to turn off the water, there was a gentle knock on the door.

"Uh, hang on just a sec," I call. "I'm almost done!"

Kurt's gentle voice comes through the door. "My friend and I found you some clothes. Do you mind if I open ze door a little to give zem to you?"

I securely wrap the towel around myself and open the door a crack, just enough that Kurt can stick his arm in. He does, and I find that he brought everything I needed. I put the clothes on slowly, reveling in ho wonderful it feels to be clean and have clean clothes that fit.

When I come out, Kurt and a girl that I assume is his friend, are sitting in the center of the bed. I can't see that they're playing cards until Kurt turns around and smiles at me. The girl is about my size and I assume, height as well. She has crystal clear blue eyes and mouse brown hair that's pulled into a ponytail, with chin length bangs framing her face. She smiles as she stands up and holds out her hand

"Hi," she says brightly. "I'm Kitty. The clothes you're wearing are mine, but you can keep them, 'cause they look waaayyyy better on you than they ever did on me. That shirt is totally your color, too! What's your favorite color? Do you like movies? Do you like _Star Wars_? What kind of music do you like? What's your favorite band? Mine's Petra. What's-?"

Just as she was about to ask the next few rapid-fire questions, all on the same breath as the last few, Kurt cut her off. "I'm sure Lost Girl is tired and vould like to rest and eat. After she does zose zings, ve can find her some more clozes, ja?"

"Okay!", cried Kitty over her shoulder. "Hope you like it here, Lost Girl! Ask me if you need anything! See ya later! I hope you find out what your name is!"

I decided almost immediately that I liked this Kitty girl. She seemed really sweet, caring and funny. Although a little loud and overwhelming at first, I could probably get used to her being around.

As Kurt gently pushed her out the door and closed it, I got my first good look around. His room was sparsely decorated, and the walls were painted a light shade of blue-gray. There was a large bed, the headboard pushed against the wall across from the bathroom door. On the left side was a small table, with a lamp, a small book, and an alarm clock, and on the other side, about a foot or two away from the bed, was a fairly good sized dresser.

I turned to Kurt, and he smiled invitingly, as if to tell me to have a closer look around. When I turned around, I saw balcony doors with pale red curtains that were fluttering in the breeze. Sitting next to the doors, was an old-fashioned roll-top desk, with a simple straight-backed chair and a laptop that was off and closed. Curious to see what the view looked like, I walked out onto the balcony.

I leaned on the rail to look around. Kurt followed behind and perched on the rail next to me. The view was breathtaking. When you looked to the left, all there was to see for miles and miles was water. When you looked to the right or straight ahead, you would see the grounds, and the younger children playing. I closed my eyes as the breeze started to come back. I felt my hair being blown from my face, as well as a gentle hand on my shoulder.

 _This is really nice,_ I thought. _I could spend all day up here if Kurt let me. To bring out a book to read would be nice..._

"Vould you like somezing to eat?", asked Kurt gently. "Zen if you like, you can take a nap, or ve could go to Kitty's room to find you some clozes. Vhat vould you like to do? I'm villing to do anyzong you vould like."

"Sure," I replied. I turned around and put my elbows on the railing. "What do you have? Some of my memory is starting to come back and I like bananas."

Kurt smiled gently and placed his hand on my forearm. With a small rush, we appeared in what seemed to be the kitchen. I didn't see it coming and nearly fell over. Kurt caught me in one arm and swung me into a chair. I didn't feel like moving, so I stayed there. When I looked to my left, there was a man sitting on the window seat, reading a newspaper. He seemed to sense me looking at him and turned to look at me.

He was brawny, and ebony haired, wearing faded jeans and a plaid flannel shirt with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows, with the front left hanging open, revealing a plain white, skin-hugging tank top underneath. He raised one eyebrow and nodded his head in greeting, and went back to his paper. Kurt brought me a banana and some cereal and greeted the man on the window seat.

"Hallo, Herr Logan," he said kindly. "How are you today?"

"I'm good, Elf," Mr. Logan replied, in a gruff voice. "Who's yer friend there? Never seen 'er before."

Kurt turned to me with a questioning look in his eyes. I nodded my approval to let him introduce me.

"Herr Logan, zis is Lost Girl. Lost Girl, zis is Herr Logan, one of ze teachers here," said Kurt.

Mr. Logan's eyebrow shot skyward in response. "Lost Girl, huh?" he questioned. "Ya like, a native American holding to a tradition er somethin' that yer name is Lost Girl? Never heard that used as a name."

"No, I'm not native American that I know of, at least," I replied. "I just don't know what my name is. Not now, at least. The Professor was gonna help me figure that out at some point."

"I know what not knowin' who you are feels like," Mr. Logan replied. "Been there, done that. If ya ever need help, I'll be willin' ta'."

"Thank you very much for the offer," I replied. The thing was, when Mr. Logan offered his help, he had really meant it, and I had meant it just as much when I thanked him. "I'll have to think about it a little. I'm new, and not really sure if I can trust anyone but Kurt right now."

"I get it," Mr. Logan replied. "I know what it's like to not be able to trust anyone. Makes it seem like the whole world is at yer enemy." He got up and folded his paper. "An' ya better eat that cereal before it gets nasty." With that, he winked at me and left the room.

"I zink zat is ze most words I've ever heard him say to one person zat isn't Herr Xavier," said Kurt. He turned to me with a strange look on his face. "How is it zat you seem to be able to get people of few words to say so much?"

"I dunno," I replied, shaking my head. "Honestly, I really dunno. I guess a lot of people just feel the need to let me know they're willing to help me if I need it. I don't really understand why it happens."

I went back to eating my food and silence fell over the room, except for the occasional person that walked through the room and said hello. I saw a lot of interesting people, just sitting at the kitchen table. I'm also fairly sure that I saw at least half the people that live in the house, just by being in there. Well, I found the right place to sit if I ever want to make friends, at least.

oOo

At one point, this really Goth looking girl wearing green and black walked in. The three things that stood out to me about her were that she had a very memorable Southern drawl that made every word sound like a poem. She also had a streak of bright white hair that served as her bangs, as well as introducing herself to me as Rogue.

 _That's interesting,_ I thought. _I'm not the only one with a name that might sound peculiar to a new person._

"Hi, Ah'm Rogue," she said. "Ah hope you can stay with us awhile. We haven't had many new kids around recently. What's your name, sugah?"

"I don't really know," I replied. "Kurt calls me Lost Girl, though, so I guess that's what my name is. I don't remember my real name, so Kurt called me that and it kinda stuck, I guess. And, just out of curiosity, why did you call me sugar? I've never heard anyone do that before."

Rogue kind of smiled at me and shook her head. "It's kinda just something Ah do, Ah guess. So, where are you from? Callin' ya Lost Girl kinda has a native American sound to it."

"No, I don't think so," I replied. "Where are you from?"

"Ah'm from Mississippi," she replied. "If you're done with your food, maybeh Ah can give you a tour of the house. It's really big."

I looked down at my half-eaten bowl of cereal with a shrug. I was really torn between waiting for Kurt and going with Rogue to see the house. I understand that she's trying to be welcoming, but I was still really nervous and wanted to be in the background until I knew a few people a bit better. I shook my head at her, and carefully contemplated my response.

"That's really nice of you, but I'd really like to wander around on my own first," I replied. "I really appreciate that you're trying to be welcoming and kind, but I'd like to get my bearings on my own before I really start talking to people a whole lot."

She nodded understandingly.

"Ah get it," Rogue replied. "You're new and still shy. Ah'll let you be to do your own thing, but Ah'm here if you ever need me for anything. All you gotta do is ask. Hope you have fun wandering. Ah got finals to study for, but it was great to meet you."

After taking her dishes to the sink, Rogue wandered off to do whatever it was she had to do. I turned to see if "Herr Logan" was still on the window seat. He was, but his newspaper had been replaced with what seemed to be a rather old, leather-bound looking book. I got up and wandered over to see what it was.

I looked over his shoulder and was able to read a few lines. I believe it was a rather confusing line about living forward and backward in time at the same time. It didn't really make sense to me, but before I could really say anything, he grunted.

"Hey kid," he said. "If ya want ta read the book, couldja kindly wait until I'm done? It makes me kinda uncomfortable when people do that."

"Sure," I replied. "No problem. What's it called?"

"'The Once and Future King' by T.H. White," Mr. Logan told me. "I'm gonna warn you though, it's a pretty sizable book and takes a while to read."

"That's okay," I responded. "I've got plenty of time to kill. It probably won't do any harm to read for a while."

He grunted and didn't say anything more, so I went to wander around for a bit and get used to my surroundings. I ran into Kurt coming out of the kitchen, and he greeted me with a cheerful smile. I nodded in response and continued on my way. I turned left after leaving the kitchen, and just walked down the hall, peeking into each room as I went. This house was definitely a mansion, and there were a lot of people. I mean _a lot_ of people. There were at least, average, for or five people that I could see in every room. Not to mention the number of people I passed walking down the hall.

By the time I made it to what I guessed was the middle of the hall, I felt a little bit trapped. Where the heck was the front of the house? I want to go outside, see the sky and the clouds! For Pete's sake, whoever the heck Pete is, where was the freaking front door?! I slid down to the floor with my back against the wall and sighed. This house is freaking _huge._ Who on planet Earth has a family big enough that they would need a house this big anyways?

I heard music and laughter coming from farther down the hall to my left. I sighed again and picked myself up again. I found the source of the noise and wandered in, thinking someone could tell me how to get outside. There were three guys playing pool in one corner of the room, and they seemed the most likely to tell me what I wanted to know.

I walked over to the pool table and leaned against the wall near it. I caught the attention of one of the guys, and he came over to me with a smile. He was really tall, with auburn-brown hair and really interesting red and black eyes. He was wearing a plain black shirt, dark jeans, and sneakers. Looked friendly enough to me.

"De petite chere be needin' Remy's help wit' sometin'?" he asked kindly. "Remy don recognize you, petite. What's your name?"

I shrugged. _Dang, this guy thinks he's so charming. I guess I'll just have to be nice and ask politely._

"I guess it's Lost Girl," I replied. "I'm new here, and I was wondering if you could tell or possibly show me where the front door is. I really want to go outside."

Remy smirked. "Remy will show you the way. Follow me."

 _Geez, what the heck is with him referring to himself in the third person? It's really annoying. Did anyone teach this guy proper English grammar?_

I realized as soon as we left the room I was probably going in the right direction to begin with. Mental face palm. We kept going down the hall until Remy turned to me with a smile and a gesture. I took it to mean something like "after you", so I walked past him with a thank you. He smiled again and left me to look around.

I ran past the staircase and straight out the door into the fresh spring air. I'd see the rest of the house later. I tilted my head back to bask in the warm sun, and enjoy the fresh air.


	4. Ch 3: Some Attempts at Fun and Fashion

Chapter 3: Some Attempts at Fun and Fashion

I came back to the real world when I heard nearby shouts and cheers. I walked down the steps and made my way around the side of the house to see what all the ruckus was about. As I came around the house, I ducked as something flew clean over my head. I was just standing back up fully when, whump!, a good sized brown dog ran right into me, throwing both of us on the ground in a jumble of limbs.

I managed to scramble to my feet, rubbing where the back of my head had made contact with the ground. It's not a pleasant feeling, hitting your head. A yelp and a whimper came from the aforementioned creature. I looked down at the dog, and sat down to pet it. The dog rolled over and I saw it was a female. I sat down next to her and rubbed her belly.

There was an almost immediate change in her disposition when I started giving her a belly rub. Her tail started wagging, she started panting with a cute doggy grin on her face, and she completely stopped whimpering. I reached up and scratched behind her ears. She rolled back onto her belly and started to lick my hand while I patted and rubbed her back with the other.

"Rhane! Where did you get to?" someone called. The dog sat up a bit higher and stopped licking me. She cocked her ears in attention as the shouts got closer.

"There's Rhane! I found her!" shouted a small boy, pointing at me from in front of us. An avalanche of boys came running around the corner, almost falling over us as the dog started barking and jumping in excitement. I stood up, really unsure of what to do with myself.

The smallest boy tugged on the bottom of my shirt. "Hi! I'm Jamie! Want to play Frisbee with us? You can throw it! What's your name?"

"My name is Lost Girl," I replied. "And I'd love to play with you. You might have to show me how though."

"I'll show you!" cried Jamie. His eyes sparkled with excitement and friendliness. "Your name is so cool, Lost Girl! Just stay right here and I'll go get Rhane and the Frisbee to play with."

Jamie took off like a rocket. I stood where he left me, watching and listening as he raced across the lawn shouting for Rhane to "come play with me and Lost Girl". I looked dawn at my feet, and something dawned on me.

 _The other kids all took off to play and left Jamie behind. He doesn't have a playmate because they're all bigger and stronger than he is. They don't seem to want him around because they're older than he is. I'll have to talk to them._

"Lost Girl, Lost Girl!" shouted Jamie, dashing up to me. "I found Rhane! Here, throw this and she'll run and catch it. It's lots of fun to watch her. We'll take turns throwing. I'll go first to show you."

When he threw the disk, I honestly really just wanted to watch them have fun. I was just fine watching them. For real. When Jamie was getting ready to throw the thing, Rhane did that weird thing dogs do. The thing they do when they're waiting to fetch, where their legs are stretched out in front of them, the front half of their belly is on the ground, and their butts are sticking in the air. It was kind of cute, actually.

Every time Jamie threw the disk, Rhane took off faster than Jamie did when he went to find her. After about five throws, Jamie kindly showed me how to throw the Frisbee, and I can say it was rather difficult the first few times I tried. I eventually got the hang of it, and had a great time taking turns throwing the Frisbee and talking to Jamie.

It, sadly, ended up that all my assumptions about him being left out because he was the smallest were true. Poor kid. Being lonely and not having any playmates couldn't possibly ever be any fun. I'd have to do something about that. Just as I was going to tell him I was willing to play with him, Kurt appeared out of nowhere with a faint 'bamf' sound.

"Zere you are, Lost Girl!" he cried joyfully. "Keety and I have been looking for you for almost two whole hours! Vould you like to get some new clothes?"

"Yeah," I replied. "Can I tell Jamie something first? It's important to me."

"Of course!" Kurt replied, with clear understanding written on his face. "Just come back to ze front steps and find me vhen you're ready." With that, he disappeared in a puff of smoke and another 'bamf'.

"Are you going to be my friend?" asked Jamie quietly. "Rhane and Kurt are my only real friends. But they hardly ever have time to play because they're always busy, like the grown-ups." As he said this last part, he looked at the ground and looked very much like he was trying not to cry.

I knelt in front of him and put my hands on his shoulders.

"Jamie," I replied, "of course I'll be your friend. I don't really have any myself, and you look like you could use a playmate. I'll do my best to come out and play with you, but I can't promise that I'll be able to every time. Do you understand what I'm trying to say?"

"Yeah, I understand," Jamie said with a small sniffle. "Thanks for understanding me and playing with me and Rhane. Can I give you a hug?"

I nodded, and he wrapped his arms around my neck. I hugged him back, and felt horrible that I needed to leave. When we let go of each other, he and Rhane took off to play some more. I went back around to the front of the house, and Kurt was waiting for me on the steps, just like he said he would. When I walked up to him, he looked up from his book and smiled.

"Vell," he said, "at least you've made a friend. Zat's good. Jamie doesn't have very many, and gets left out a lot. I hope you won't mind me 'porting you to Keety's room. Zough I vill varn you, she probably has a lot picked out for you to try. It could take a bit."

"I honestly don't care," I replied. "At this point, I think it would just be nice to have some clothes of my own, instead of having to wear someone's clothes when they need them. Are we gonna get going?"

Kurt grinned at me and held out his hand. I nervously took it, and we disappeared and reappeared with a small rush and a puff of sulfur smelling smoke in Kitty's room.

"There you two are!" cried Kitty, from the middle of the clothes circle on her floor. "I was starting you might not come! I found a bunch of super cute outfits that you can keep if they fit you. I hope you like them! They're laying on the bed, all spread out for you to try on."

I looked around the room quickly before walking over to see what Kitty had put on the bed for me. It was pretty much the same as Kurt's room, but in reverse, and with two beds and dressers, instead of one. I stepped carefully over Kitty's piles of clothes on the floor to look at what she had set out for me.

The outfits were all really cute, and they were all super stylish. The first one was like a forties style party dress, printed with tiny red and green cherry bunches all over it, and a petticoat to go underneath the skirt, paired with black, sparkly ballet flats. The second outfit was leather textured leggings with a mid-thigh, blue plaid shirt and a matching belt, with black lace-up boots that had zippers on the side.

The third outfit so far was by far my favorite. It was a simple white shirt and a jumper dress with sea themed things all over it, paired with simple brown lace-up boots and a pink and white bandanna. The fourth outfit was boot-cut blue jeans and a black shirt printed with teeny tiny yellow flowers, paired with purple heeled boots. Kitty was obviously the fashion boss of this house. These outfits were obviously very well thought out.

The fifth outfit was skinny jeans and a light blue cami, paired with a green cardigan sweater and sparkly yellow Toms. There were at least six other outfits, but these were my favorites, and Kitty said she was planning on giving me at least half of a wardrobe based on what she already had. She told me she had a ton of clothes, and she usually only wore the same outfit once or twice before getting something new.

 _Yikes. This girl has either a ton of time, a ton of space, and a ton of money. That's a lot of time, space, and effort to put just into clothes. And if she is willing to give them to me knowing that she's going to get more, she definitely has a heart bigger than this entire house. And a mind bigger than her closet._

I took the first one in the bathroom and tried it on. It fit perfectly and was actually really comfortable. I went out to show Kitty and Kurt. They both loved it and insisted I should see myself in the mirror. I walked over to the mirror and was really taken aback at how cute and fashionable the dress was.

I have a complexion much like that of Kurt, except that I have dragon-like, fireproof scales all over me instead of fur. Although, if you rub them the wrong way, instead of tickling me, it actually really hurts. Not to mention if they're really hot if someone was shooting fire at me, if you did said action, they would break off completely. That hurts even more.

I ended up trying on every outfit Kitty could find for me, but the one I went back to was the third one with the sea themed jumper. I loved this outfit. After I had changed back into that one and come back out, Rogue had appeared on one of the beds, and was reading a book with music in her ears to block out Kurt and Kitty's cheerful chatter.

We folded all the clothes and put them neatly in boxes. The shoes had separate boxes, but we packed them up along with everything else. When we were done, we had been at it for a few hours. We sat down for a breather, and then put away everything Kitty hadn't given to me.

"Wow!" Kitty cried when we were done. "My closet is half empty! I really hope you enjoy wearing all those clothes. I hardly wore the ones I gave to you, even though they were totally cute. I'm glad I did it though."

"Why are you glad you gave me half of your closet?" I asked with genuine curiosity.

"Oh," she replied, "I go shopping a lot. I tend to go to the mall at least once a week, as well as on Sundays. It's one of my favorite places, and I always come home with armloads of stuff."

"Damn right she gets tons of stuff," came Rouge's voice. "She was starting to run out of space in that damn closet of hers, she buys so much crap. It's really a good thing you came along, 'cause she sure as hell wasn't giving any of her crap to Goodwill."

"Rouge, vatch your language," Kurt chided. "Please, you know I don't like hearing you speak zat vay."

"Sorry, Elf," she apologized. "Ah can't help it. Ah do have to keep most of my clothes in my drawers 'cause she uses most of the closet."

"I know I'm probably interrupting," I sad, "but do Rogue and Kitty share a room? I feel a little stupid for asking, but I couldn't figure out why there are two beds. Sorry."

"Don't be sorry," said Rogue. "Ah was going off. Yeah, we do share a room. Sometimes it's fun, but it can also be annoying, 'cause if you get to really know a person like Ah know Kitty, You learn how to really annoy each other. Now why don't y'all go down to the rec room while Ah work in here? Teach her how ta play pool or something."

"Zat's a great idea!" shouted Kurt. "I'll bet she'll be great at pool! Come on!"

As Kurt got excited, he dashed out the door with Kitty and me following at a slower pace. Every so often, he would teleport in front of us and urge us to 'go faster' because we were 'going too slow'. Kitty and me got a pretty good laugh out of it.

When we got there, Kurt had already set up the table and was pulling long poles off of a stand on the wall. Kitty explained to me how pool worked, with the common interjection from Kurt, and we played for a while. It actually ended up being really fun. I won twice, and Kurt told me I was doing well for a beginner.

We played for about and hour, and I started to feel hungry. Just as I was about to tell Kurt, someone dashed in and announced that it was dinnertime. We put away the pool things, and went to the dining room for dinner. I earned a kind smile from Professor X, and a few funny looks, but everyone pretty much ignored me. Thank my lucky stars no one mentioned the new face at the table.

After dinner was finished, Professor Xavier showed me where my room was. It was exactly like Kurt's', but the furniture was arranged differently. After I figured out where I could put everything, Kurt and Kitty helped me haul all of my new clothes from Kitty and Rogue's room and put it all away.

By the time we were finished, I was exhausted. Kurt and Kitty both left because they had homework to do. I got ready for bed and turned all my lights off, but sat there thinking.

 _Wow. I thought this place was going to be awful, but everyone I've met so far seems to be really nice and caring. I hope they all stay that way, even though I look wonky. I wonder what things are going to happen tomorrow. Maybe I can watch a movie. I'll find something to do._

I crawled under the covers and lay there, just looking out the windows of my balcony doors, apprehensive of what the next day would bring. I fell asleep hoping that I could find out more about my past, and hoping Kurt would be there with me every step of the way.


	5. Ch 4: These People are Crazy

Chapter 4: These People are Crazy

My eyes fluttered open the next morning to the feeling of the ground shaking. I sat up and looked around. Everything seemed normal. I got out of bed and opened the door. The hall was buzzing with activity, and I could hear someone at the end of the hall shouting orders. I jumped and turned, feeling a hand on my shoulder.

"Ya have to come with meh, we're under attack," Rogue told me. "Stay close. I have to get you to the lower levels. Just follow me."

"What do you mean we're under attack?" I ask as we start down the hall. "Attack from what? It doesn't make any sense. Nothing should be attacking us."

"It's hard to explain," she replied, as we climbed aboard the elevator. "Ah'm sure if you ask the Professor, he'll be willing to tell you what's happening and how things work around here. Ah'm gonna leave you with him in Cerebro. Ah have other orders. Stay here."

With that, the door shut with a small thud. I looked around. This room was huge. I mean, it was absolutely gargantuan. At the end of the path I was standing on, Professor X was sitting at a desk, looking up at a huge screen with a funky helmet on his head. He was speaking to Dr. McCoy, who was rapidly typing something on the other fairly sizable computer in the room.

I came up behind him, and he acknowledged me with a nod. I was completely unsure of what to do. I stood there for at least a minute, just watching them. I finally got up the guts to lightly tap the Professor on the shoulder.

"Professor," I said, "why can't I help? I have to do something."

"I'm afraid, child," he replied with a sigh, "because we don't know what your gifts are, and you have no training that we know of, I can't send you up there for fear of something happening to you. Please, just stay down here, where you're safe."

"But I have to do something!" I practically shouted at him. "You've done so much for me already, the least I can do is try to help, even if I don't do very much. I don't even care if I don't do much, but I feel useless just sitting down here doing nothing!"

I didn't care if the Professor got mad at me, I was going back upstairs to help if it killed me. I slammed my hand against the door opener, and raced out before it was all the way open, with the calls of Dr. McCoy and the Professor ringing in my ears. I sprinted down the hall and punched the elevator button, glad to have the doors open almost immediately. I climb on and push the first button I see.

I'm so nervous, I have butterflies in my stomach. The elevator doors open after a few moments, and I raced out of it and down the hall, all the way to the banister. I stopped dead in my tracks and sank down behind the banister supports to hide when I saw what had happened in the foyer.

All of the X-Men had been bound and gagged, with some sort of metal bands around their necks and were lined up on their knees at the bottom of the stairs. Standing on the stairs about halfway up, was a man. He cut a very imposing figure, wearing a long, red cape, and a purple and red helmet, with large rings of shining silver metal floating around him in a constant, mesmerizing pattern. He seemed to simply be standing there, surveying all of the destruction he and his minions had caused.

"X-Men," the man declared, "I, Magneto, have defeated you, and you will obey my commands. If yo don't, there will be consequences. I have already sent Mystique to retrieve Charles, and you will not see him again if you disobey. Am I clear?"

 _Boy, these people are crazy, thinking they can get away with something like this. I really have to come up with a plan to help them now, or they all might lose their lives. And that's not gonna happen as long as I live._

This speech really got a rise out of Mr. Logan, because he started to thrash and fight the guy that was trying to hold him down. He managed to get his gag off and yell at Magneto.

"I'll listen to yer moronic orders when I'm in hell, Magneto!" he shouted. "There's no way on this fu-!"

The man standing behind Mr. Logan cut him off by knocking him out. He fell to the floor with a faint thud sound. This got quite a reaction out of the white-haired woman beside him in the line. She started to struggle and fight as well. Magneto shook his head and clicked is tongue at her.

"Storm, Storm," he chided as he floated toward her, "I thought you were better than this. Standing up for some animal." He aimed a sharp kick at Mr. Logan's ribs. "Wolverine isn't worth your time and trouble." He pulled the gag from her face and lifted her chin to look at her.

"Wolverine is more of a man than you will ever be in my eyes," Storm practically spat at him. "He's more of a man than most men I've ever met in my entire life. Epically you."

"Storm, I'm going to make you regret you ever said that," Magneto sneered at her. "I'll prove to you that I'm more of a man than Wolverine ever can or will be."

Magneto took his hand away from Storm's chin and made like he was going to turn around. At the last possible second, quicker than I could have shouted to leave her alone, he whirls around and backhands her, right across the face with so much force it knocks her over. Magneto stands over her with a self-satisfied sneer on his face.

"You'll never be as much of a man as Wolverine," Storm hissed. "Because no real or true man would ever strike a woman, even when provoked. You should not ever call yourself a man. All you are is a disgrace and a shadow of one. Any person living in this house would say exactly the same. Even Charles."

As Storm was speaking, Magneto had been heading back to his place on the stairs. But when she said the line about Professor Xavier, the entire room seemed to tense, waiting for Magneto's reaction. He had completely stopped in his tracks, and seemed to be thinking of a way to respond, when I heard the ding and the whoosh of the elevator behind me.

Magneto apparently decided to ignore Storm's comment, and went back to his place on the stairs. But there were footsteps behind me that were coming behind me. I had to escape or hide, fast, or these nut-jobs were going to have mine. I racked my brain for ideas as the footsteps got closer.

 _I can't run down the stairs, that would lead me straight into the hands of Magneto. Literally. Should I go back in the hall, into one of the rooms and hide? That would probably get me caught though, 'cause whoever is coming down the hall is getting closer by the second._

"Hey! Mags the mighty! There's a gal sittin up 'ere watchin' you!" came the shout from behind me.

 _Crap, crap crap! I've been spotted! Argued with myself for too long. I'm such an idiot!_

The guy that shouted actually had a cool accent, but he was helping someone else half carry, half drag an unconscious Dr. McCoy down the hall. Another thing that made him far less appealing, was that as soon as he got close enough, he lunged straight at me. He also had a super cheesy looking orange and yellow outfit. I managed to duck and roll away from him, but we had definitely gotten Magneto's attention.

I dashed down the stairs, this guy in the cheesy orange suit still hot on my heels. Magneto sent one of his spinning metal rods at me when I got to the landing, and I surprised even myself with my reaction. I did a super fast series of front handsprings, dodging all the metal rods in a flash. I dashed down the rest of the stairs and out the front door.

I ran around the house, to the place where I first met Jamie. I stopped for a few precious seconds to catch my breath. The guys on my tail were getting closer, but I felt like my lungs were burning. I started ran towards the trees, knowing I could use them for cover. I got to the first tree and looked behind me. I had been spotted again.

I swallowed my fear and climbed the first few branches of the tree. I had gotten about halfway up, when the guys finally reached the bottom of the tree. The guy in orange had been replaced by two other ones. The shorter one was kind of skinny, and was wearing a gray and silver suit with some sort of tacky looking glass thing over his head. The other one was a little bit taller, but was really fat.

"Hey, Lance," the fat one said, "I don't think we'll be able to climb up after that girl. Ain't no way I can, at least. I'm way too big. What are you gonna do?"

"Well, Fred," Lance replied, "if you give me a boost, I'll go up there after her."

"But I've got more of a chance to get her than you," Fred shot back. "Everyone knows that yer a total wuss about heights. And, if I end up bringin' the tree down, we can still get her. It's not like she's a squirrel."

"Are you a complete idiot, Fred?!" Lance yelled. "We both know I can just shake things up and she'll fall right outta that tree. I don't even have to move from this spot to get her down, you blockhead!"

 _These guys are idiots. Standing down there arguing like dolts when they could have just started trying to get me. They're acting like three year old children. I'll bet my lucky stars Magneto would've caught me by now._

Fred was just about to yell something at Lance, but I interrupted them. "Hey! You dolts down there could have caught me by now if you would just stop arguing like petty kids!" I called. "You're being really annoying ad I don't know why Magneto even let you say. I'm pretty sure no one would even want you around with the way you fight each other."

They looked up at me as I continued. "If you promise to not even touch me, maybe I'll consider coming down. But, I have to get a written note from Magneto himself saying that no harm will come to me or my friend before I even begin to budge. Is that okay with you?"

They exchanged a look before looking back up at me and didn't say anything that I could hear for a little bit. After a few minutes, Lance ran back around the house. Fred stayed at the base of the tree until Lance came back a few minutes later. He had another boy in tow that was holding some sort of paper.

The smaller boy climbed up the tree, about arms' reach from me, and handed me a white envelope. He climbed back down, obviously nervous about the height I had chosen to climb to. Once this very smelly boy had reached the ground, I opened the note. It was written in very fine script, and went something like this:

"Young Lady,

I do not wish for any of my faithful followers to bring to you any harm. As long as you promise to do as I wish, I will allow you to do as you please. If I have your complete obedience, your friend will come to absolutely no harm. I can not, however, say with complete certainty, that you will have everything one could ever want, but you will receive the bare necessitates. You have my solemn word, as a leader, and as a man, that no harm will come to you.

Magneto"

I folded the note and shoved it back in the envelope scornfully. After hearing what Storm said, I really wasn't sure if I could even believe Magneto. I was stuck, up in a tree, making a choice that could change the course of my life. After the thing about not even remembering who I am, but somehow knowing a crap ton of music that not even Kurt had ever heard of. These people are crazy.

I climbed down the tree slowly, and stopped when I got just low enough that the dolts on the ground could hear me, and told them (none too nicely) to move their butts. They complied, with some grumbling, of course. Idiots.

I swung down to the ground, and wordlessly handed Lance the note. He snatched it from my hand and tore it out of the envelope. He opened it, and read it with Fred and the other dude hanging over his shoulders. He sneered and pointed wordlessly in the direction of the house. I gave him a single nod.

Lance crumpled the note in his fist and stomped off in a huff. I followed him all the way into the house and to Magneto's door in complete silence. I stood in front of Magneto's door, really unsure of what to do next.

 _Man, oh man. What did I just get myself into?_

 **A/N: I see you, reviewers! Thanks for the time and the love! Have you figured out what the whole 'Lost Girl' thing is a reference to yet? PM me if you figure it out. :) I hope you all have a wonderful day. Tootles! :)**


	6. Ch 5: Magneto

Chapter 5: Magneto

I took a deep breath and started to open the door. I hesitated for a moment before stepping in. I paused in the doorway when I caught sight of Magneto. He cut a very imposing figure, even without his cape and helmet. He simply stood next to the window, turned to the side, with his hands clasped behind him. Magneto turned fully, and pulled the chair out using his powers and sat in it, gesturing for me to sit in one of the chairs standing in front of the desk.

I entered, with the air of caution, gently closing the door behind me. I sat in the chair, carefully, crossed my ankles, folded my hands in my lap, and hoped nothing horrible would happen. I waited for a few tense moments, while he seemed to study me carefully. Those few moments were some of the longest, most tense moments of my life.

"Well, child, you don't seem to mean any harm to me," Magneto said, breaking the tense silence. "What's your name, young one? And why, exactly, are you here?"

"I don't really know why I'm here," I replied. "And my name is Lost Girl. I promise not to do anything as long as your crazy minions leave me alone. And I get to visit my friend at least once a day."

He chuckled. Like, actually chuckled. He even had this crazy half smile thing on his face. This guy really is crazy. Whatever I do, I definitely am going to ask Kurt beforehand. He could probably tell me anything I want to know.

"Well, Lost Girl," he said, "I promise that no harm will come to Nightcrawler and that you will be able to visit him. But, you must abide by my simple rules. If you do not, I will have to show you what happens to people that don't listen to me. And your precious Nightcrawler will pay as well. Now, you are free to go."

 _If he does anything to Kurt, I'll see that Mr. Logan gets to do what he wants with Magneto and his crazy minions. I highly doubt he'll want to cross Wolverine. He looked pretty angry earlier. Angry enough to tear 'ol Mags the mighty limb from limb._

As soon as I closed the door behind me, I was bombarded with questions. I ignored all of them. I didn't care about their questions. I just needed to think about what might happen to Kurt and all of his friends. I made a beeline to my room, and closed and locked the door behind me. They seemed to mostly get the message, and left me alone with my thoughts.

 _What am I supposed to do? Should I come up with a plan, tell Kurt and them, and do it all on my own? Or should I just wait until the minions get bored and do something then? Gosh, we're all in a massive pickle with this. I could try to sneak out somehow, and go to Manhattan to get the Avengers. They might help._

 _Ugh. Why does life have to be so hard?! I'll ask Kurt when I see him what I should do. He'll be a huge help. Maybe he would even tell me to get the Avengers. I'll have to ask, but right now I'm tired. I'll be sure to ask Kurt and his friends what to do. I'm sure they can help me._

I ended up crawling back into bed and falling asleep for a few hours. When I woke up, it was sometime around four in the afternoon. I realized I was still in my pajamas, so I showered and got dressed. I opened my door and looked both ways down the hall. There was no one to be seen in either direction. I ventured back to Magneto's office to ask if I could see Kurt, and the door was slightly ajar.

I knocked gently, and there was a call to enter. I pushed the door open a little more, and stuck my head inside. Magneto was sitting at the desk, his hands folded under his chin, like he was thinking about something very deeply. He indicated the chair with a nod. I came in, leaving the door open behind me. I sat in the chair, much more confident than I had been earlier.

"Well, I'm assuming you have something to say, young lady," Magneto said civilly. "I also never received the honor of knowing what your name is."

"My name is Lost Girl," I replied, trying to be civil. "I came to ask if I could visit with my friend. You said I could see him once a day if I wanted to. And I'd very much like to see him now."

"You may see Nightcrawler. But, I will have someone wait outside the door for you, to escort you away from... Where he happens to be," Magneto replied. "Now come. I will take you to him."

As he spoke, he turned his chair and stood. I stood as well, and I followed him out of the room. We went down the stairs to the rec room, and as soon as he stood in the doorway, the entire room went dead silent. Like, you literally could have actually heard a pin drop, silent. It was super eerie.

He ordered the guy in the corny looking orange suit (apparently his "mutant name" is Pyro) to take me to see Kurt. Pyro seemed totally fine with it, and complied with some snide remark about "getting to walk around with the gorgeous arm candy", like I was some sort of special treat to be bought, or something.

 _Bhech. This guy is gonna be a real pain._

Magneto excused himself with a nod to me and a warning to Pyro to not let me out of his sight. Then he left to go back to "his" office. Pyro offered me his arm with a wink, a totally over the top silly grin, and a creepy once over with his eyes. Way to impress a girl, dude. Totally subtle. I applaud your brilliance.

He did, however, offer me his arm. At least he was trying a little bit to be a gentleman. We walked in complete silence to the bottom stair of the porch before he stopped me. He pulled a bandanna out of his shirt pocket.

"Sorry, love," he said. "I gotta put this over yer eyes. Mags' orders. We can't be lettin' ya know where yer friend is."

"Okay," I replied, "but you have to let me put it on. I don't want it too tight."

Pyro handed me the cloth, and I tied it over my eyes. He took my hand and put it on the crook of his elbow to lead me. We walked for a few minutes, Pyro not shutting up the whole way about how he beat Avalanche (apparently this was Lance) at some shooter game, and how funny it was when Toad took Blob's food.

I asked him what everyone's name is, and he told me he would point everyone out to me when we got back to the house. A few moments after he said that, he announced we were "here". I pulled the blindfold off, and was appalled at what I saw.

The place Kurt was being held was nothing more than a run-down woodshed, guarded by a very bored looking, burly blonde guy that towered well over my head. He had super nasty breath, yellow teeth, and looked like he could have been in some sort of hair metal band. He growled at us as we approached, but didn't say anything and went right back to whatever he was doing.

I felt ready to march right back up to the house and give Magneto a big old piece of my mind. This place was, literally, nothing more than a run down old woodshed. A few planks were missing out of the wall, and I could clearly see there was also a gaping hole in the roof. Pyro pushed me towards the door.

I walked ahead of him after he pushed me and opened the door. The scene I was greeted with was awful. It made me even angrier than just seeing the shack did. Everyone was tied to the wall by their wrists, and some of the older ones had very obvious bruises and black eyes. The white haired lady, Storm, had her head bowed and was definitely having a ton of trouble trying to breathe.

I searched the room for Kurt, but didn't see him anywhere. I stepped forward, and Pyro slammed the door shut behind me with a burst of insane sounding laughter. I walked over and knelt beside Storm, to see if I could figure out a way to help her. I brushed her hair out of her eyes, and she turned to look at me.

The first thing I noticed was that she had a rather sizable bruise on her cheek. But what really caught my attention was her eyes. She had large, beautiful, deep blue eyes that looked like they normally held a twinkle of good humor. Sadly, though, all I was able to see in her beautiful eyes was hopelessness and despair.

"Would you like me to get your hair out of your face?" I whispered.

All she did was nod.

"Do you know where Kurt is?" I asked as I finger combed her hair.

"He... Got away," she rasped, "Logan... Told him to... Get help. Said... Something about the Avengers. He... Probably went to... Manhattan."

"I know you're having a lot of trouble talking," I replied, braiding her hair, "but could you answer one more question?"

She nodded, pulling slightly on the hair I had in my hands.

"Could you possibly tell me how I might get to the Avengers?" I asked, tying off the end of the braid.

"Find... Find Nightcrawler. He'll help you," she answered with determination keeping her voice from cracking. "Logan sneaked him enough money for bus tickets. Go find the bus station and get the Avengers, before it's too late."

Hope had come into her eyes, I could see it very clearly. But very soon after she finished speaking, she passed clean out. I stood up, unsure of how to go about finding Kurt. For all I knew, I wasn't allowed to even leave the grounds. Unless I got someone to go with me. That's it! I can have Pyro take me to the mall and I can find my way to the bus station from there!

I walked out the door with more hope and determination than I had entered with. I re-tied the blindfold on, and was escorted back to the house by Pyro. When I got back, I raced up to Magneto's office again. I stopped outside his door and took a deep breath. I knocked.

There was a call to enter, and I came in, trying to act composed and mature. I sat quietly in the chair, and waited for him to acknowledge I was there. He was standing with his back to me, looking out the window.

"Well Lost Girl*," he finally said, "you're a very brave young lady to come see me three times in one day. What is it you require?"

"I was wondering if it would be okay for Pyro to take me to the mall," I replied. "I haven't seen it yet, and can't remember ever being to one."

That's alright with me as long as Pyro stays with you at all times," Magneto said, sitting in his chair. "You must stay together, but if you wish to go, that's up to him."

"Thank you!" I cried excitedly. _My plan is going to work! All I have to do is get Pyro to take me to the mall!_

I dashed out of the room to find Pyro. I found him in the rec room, playing Halo with the stinky dude that had climbed the tree to give me the note earlier. I waited, standing behind the couch until they were done with their round of the game.

"Pyro, can you take me to the mall?" I asked. "Magneto said it was okay as long as you stayed with me. Please?" I gave him my best puppy-dog eyes.

He melted at my expression. "Of course, luv. Lemme grab the keys real fast and I'll meet you in the garage."

I dashed to the garage and waited for Pyro to come out. I was antsy and dancing from foot to foot until he finally came out the front door, keys in hand. He opened the garage door, and pointed the keyring remote at a red convertible. The lights flashed and it beeped, signaling it was unlocked. We climbed in, and I felt a surge of energy and hope. My plan might actually work!

We drove all the way to the mall in almost complete silence, except for the corny country music Pyro was blaring. It was the stupidest music I had ever heard in my life. And that's coming from someone that knows 'Last Ride of the Day'** by heart. Seriously Pyro, find some better music that isn't about random dudes losing their girlfriends, riding in their trucks, and beer. There's better things to fill your head with.

Anyway, we didn't exchange a single word the entire car ride. We parked and made or way into the mall, still having not said anything to each other. The mall was really foreign to me. I couldn't remember ever actually being in a mall before in my life. I was snapped out of my thoughts when Pyro broke the silence and asked me a question.

"Where you wanna go, luv?" he asked. "Just pick somethin'. This place closes in about an hour, so we gotta get movin' if you wanna go someplace."

"Well," I replied, looking at the directory, "could we try Hot Topic? I've never been there. And I'll bet there's at least one hot chick for you to hit on." I said the last part with a smirk and a wink.

"Sure, Shelia," he responded with a smile. "It's over by Penny's, so we gotta get goin'. Come on."

We walked for a little bit, eventually finding the desired store. Luckily for me, all the employees I saw were most definitely female. That, and the fact the store had an all around gloomy atmosphere with minimal lighting, were things I could definitely use to my advantage. I wandered to the back of the store, looking around and hoping Pyro would start bugging one of the employees. Not for their sake, but for mine.

After about a few minutes in the store, luckily for me, he started doing exactly that. He was definitely hitting on her in a very obvious way. Kudos to that lady for being so gracious and kind, even though I could tell Pyro was getting on her nerves. Making sure he wasn't paying any attention to me, I discreetly exited the store and made a run for it through Penny's, intent on finding the bus station. And, hopefully, Kurt as well. I whispered a silent prayer that he would still be there and exited Penny's, hoping I would be able to help the X-Men in any way I could.

 **A/N:** Sorry this chapter is late. I really wasn't motivated to write it, but I hope you all enjoyed it. And the whole 'Lost Girl' thing is a reference to a Lindsey Stirling song. From this chapter on, I'll put little stars (this thing*) next to song references, even if it's a direct song title. At the end of the chapter, I'll put all the song titles, albums titles, and artists (in this format, song – album & artist) in the A/N so you can look them up if you want to. Hope you all have a lovely day! Peace!

*Lost Girls – Brave Enough by Lindsey Stirling

**Last Ride of the Day – Imaginaerum by Nightwish


	7. Ch 6: Manhattan

Chapter 6: Manhattan

I got directions to the bus station from a sweet little lady in a blue dress holding a fussy baby. She told me it was about a block from the mall. And I apparently I also have a Japanese accent. Didn't know that. She told me I sounded "very much like a manga artist when I talk". Whatever that means. I walked the block to the bus station in silence, following the sweet lady's directions exactly.

The bus station was exactly like the lady described it to me. It was a large, gray building, with a lot of buses parked under large, well-lit silver awnings. By my count, there were about thirty buses in total. That's a lot. I crossed the street (look both ways kids!) and entered the building. It was a bit crowded, but I easily made my way to the desk.

I asked the rather tired looking man behind the desk if he had ever seen Kurt. Fortunately, Kurt had shown me what he looked like with his image inducer on, so I could easily describe him to someone in a public place without making anyone panic. I described Kurt to the man, and he pointed across the room to a boy lying across the chairs. He had his arm over his eyes, and looked rather out of place among all the hubbub of the station.

I thanked the man politely before walking across the room to Kurt. I still couldn't get over how out of place he looked, all peaceful and quiet in the corner with all the activity around him. I smiled, and gently shook him. He quickly sat up and took his arm away from his eyes in surprise. When he saw me, his surprise turned to pure joy. He threw his arms around me in a strong, but gentle, hug.

"Lost Girl, you got out!" Kurt cried, holding me out at arms length. "I got two tickets for the next bus to Manhattan. Ve're going to ask ze Avengers for help. You got here right on time. It's supposed to leave in about ze next ten minutes."

His brow crinkled with the sudden realization that I was the only one to show up. "Lost Girl," he asked, "how did you get out? I barely escaped. Vhat happened to everyvone else? Are zey still alive?"

"Yes, Kurt," I replied, "they're still alive. I visited Storm trying to find you."

"Vhat happened?" he asked. "How did you get here?"

We sat down and I related the entire story to Kurt, including a description of the shack the X-Men were being kept in. I told him what Storm had told me, all the way up to finding him in the station. Kurt sat back in his chair with a look of fury and sadness on his normally smiling features. When I finished, he leaned forward, putting his elbows on his knees and shakily running his hands through his hair.

He turned to me, evidently about to say something, when the announcement for our bus came over the PA. He stood up, offering his hand. I took it, and he led me out the door, handing over our tickets to the ticket taker on the way. We had what seemed to me at the time one long, sobering bus ride ahead of us.

To my surprise, we were only on the bus for about an hour, but it still felt like a long time to me for some reason. When we got off, I was really taken aback at how noisy Manhattan was. I really just wanted to get back on the bus, the noise was so overwhelming. I turned to Kurt, putting my hands over my ears in an attempt to block out at least a little bit of the noise. He had his hands over his ears like I did, and gave me a sympathetic smile.

We took our hands off of our ears when we got on the building, thankful that it was a little bit quieter. We waited for about fifteen minutes, just until the station cleared out, so Kurt could use the payphone without too much noise in the background. Once it cleared out, Kurt pulled a little paper out of his pocket and called someone on the phone. I didn't hear what was said at all, but I got the impression they didn't really want to help us by the look on his face.

 _I hope they're willing to help. The X-Men really need it. Storm's condition was awful and she was horribly dehydrated. I hope those scumbags had enough heart to give her at least a little bit of water._

"Lost Girl, I called ze Avengers. Zey're not zere. Ze butler picked up. Ve have to find ozer help," he said, breaking me from my thoughts. "I can't zink of anyone ve could ask. Vhat should ve do?"

Kurt was pacing and starting to get really frantic. He was repeatedly running his hand through his hair and muttering things in German. He really looked ready to tear his hair out and burst into tears. I stood up and gave him a hug. He took a deep breath and let it out shakily, hugging me back.

"Kurt," I said, "we're gonna find help. I know we are. It doesn't matter if the Avengers can't help us. I can feel it in my bones that we're gonna do something to help your team. We just have to work for it. Now, instead of being helpless, we could go find another team or even Spider-Man to help us." I backed away, taking his hands and looking into his eyes. "Let's go see if we can do some good."

Kurt took another deep breath and let it out slowly before speaking.

"Vell, ve could alvays try ze Fantastic Four," he responded. "If zat doesn't vork, ve could try Spider-Man." He gave me a goofy grin. "I could get bragging rights vith zat. Let's go."

Kurt took my hand and led me out the door. The first thing that hit us was noise. A solid wall of noise and people. It was so loud it made my ears ring. I had to shout to be heard over all the hubbub of the city.

"Kurt, do you even know where the Fantastic Four and Spider-Man might be?" I shouted. I was really hoping we would be able to find our way. This city was so huge.

"I know vhere ze Avengers Mansion is," he shouted back. "I can find ze Baxter Building from zere." Kurt looked anxiously at the sky. "If ve get going now, ve should get to ze mansion by dark. It's only a few blocks from here. Stay close to me, I don't vant you to get hurt or lost."

On that note, we started making our way to the Avengers Mansion. The city was so large and loud, most of the walk was a blur to me. I held on to Kurt's arm the entire way. Unfortunately, I didn't see a certain webbed warrior swinging over our heads.

About halfway there, the crowds on the sidewalks started to get to me quite a lot. My heart started pounding really hard and I squeezed Kurt's arm a bit tighter. He looked down at me, noting the nervous expression on my face. He looked around, apparently trying to find somewhere less crowded to take me. I felt almost like I was trapped in a box and couldn't get out.

Just as I felt ready to really start panicking from all the people, he pulled me into a small, quaint looking cafe. I was breathing really hard and trying not to cry. It was really difficult to not burst into tears then and there. Kurt pulled me into a gentle hug, rubbing soothing circles on my back and humming Benny Goodman in my ear until it passed.

"Hey, would your little lady like a glass of water?" came a voice from behind me.

I turned my head slightly and looked through my curtain of hair at her. One of the waitresses, bless her heart, had come up to us holding a glass of water and a cupcake for each of us. I nodded in response. Water sounded wonderful. I hadn't had anything to drink since before I left for the mall.

"Ja, zat sounds vunderbar," Kurt replied. "Zank you very much. We appreciate it."

The waitress smiled sweetly. "Don't mention it, it's the least I can do. Let's get you two situated. The food's on the house."

She led us to a small two-person table by a window, putting the plate and glasses down before smiling and leaving. Kurt pulled the chair out so I could sit before sitting down himself across form me. I drank the glass of water and ate the cupcake in complete silence, wondering if our plan would really work.

We finished up pretty quickly and Kurt left the waitress a pretty hefty tip from the money we had left. When we finally got going again, the crowds had thinned quite a bit and it was starting to get dark. All of the bright lights seemed way brighter than they had at first because of the fast approaching darkness

"Kurt, how much farther to the Baxter Building?" I asked. "We've walked at least six blocks from the bus station by now."

"Ve've actually valked eight blocks," he replied, without looking at me. "I've kept better count zan you."

I glared at him, and he glanced back at me with a half smile on his face.

"Come on, vere's your sense of humor?" he asked, a hint of laughter in his voice. "I vas teasing. Ve're only about a block avay vhen ve get to ze next crossvalk."

As he said this, we stopped to wait for the light to turn. I was getting nervous again because the streetlights had been on for a while and we only passed a very few people, every now and then. I mean, this is New York City we're talking about. You never know what could happen, especially at night.

We crossed the street and walked the last block in silence. We came to the end of Yancy St. and I got my first real-life view of the home of the Fantastic Four. It was a giant blue and silver thing, with a huge blue number four on the side of it. The place towered well over every other building on the block.

"Vell, Lost Girl, are ve going to go ask for help, or are ve going to stand here all night staring at ze majesty of zeir skyscraper of a home?"

"I'm sorry," I responded, "I didn't realize I stopped. My bad. Let's go."

"I'm pretty sure I can port to zeir door," Kurt said, looking around. "Zere doesn't seem to be anyone around."

"Okay, let's do it. I'm game," I replied.

We clasped hands. In the blink of and eye and the disorienting feeling of being compressed, we were at their door. I felt a bit dizzy and leaned against Kurt until it passed. He gave me and understanding look when I was able to stand on my own again. He knocked on the door and stepped back. We both held our breath with nervousness that we would be turned away.

After a few minutes, an elderly lady opened the door and smiled at us. She stepped back, motioning for us to come in. We each let out a breath of relief and stepped inside. She closed the door behind us before turning around with a smile.

"What are you two sweethearts doing out on the street at this time of night?" she asked. "You should both be getting ready for bed. Would you like some cookies and milk?"

Kurt's stomach growled at the mention of food. He looked a little bit embarrassed and the little lady laughed, telling us her name was Mrs. Walker. Mrs. Walker shepherded us into her apartment. True to her word, she gave us a full plate of absolutely divine smelling chocolate chip cookies and tall, wonderfully cold glasses of milk. When we started on them, she disappeared down her hall for a few moments.

"After you two finish your milk and cookies, I would like you to brush your teeth and try to get some sleep," Mrs. Walker said, handing each of us a toothbrush. "But, before you finish your food, I'd like to know what exactly brings you to the Baxter Building all by yourselves."

Kurt and me exchanged a look, unsure if we could really trust Mrs. Walker, but at the same time knowing full well that she could, and probably would, alert the super-team that lived several floors above her. I think we both mentally opted to give her a short and edited version of why we were really here.

"Vell," Kurt started, "our friends are in trouble because a super-villain took over our house and ve don't know vhat to do. Ve vere going to notify ze Fantastic Four to help us. Ve already tried ze Avengers, but zey are out of country at ze moment."

Kurt opened his mouth to say more, but Mrs. Walker cut him off.

"Why didn't you just say so at the door?" she exclaimed. "I'd be more than happy to notify them for you. While I'm calling them, both of you go brush your teeth. You've both got chocolate all over yourselves." She made a shooing motion with her hands. "Shoo! Get going! The sooner you go the sooner I call them!"

We didn't need to be told twice. We darted straight to the bathroom to brush our teeth. When we got in the bathroom, we could hear the faint voice of her talking and breathed a sigh of relief. We got to brushing and Kurt kept making silly faces at me in the mirror.

When Mrs. Walker came to tell us we were going up to the penthouse when we were finished, I was still choking with laughter at Kurt's faces. He made one of them at her and she laughed as well. We finished up pretty quickly after that and Mrs. Walker went on the elevator with us.

I was so nervous, I started humming 'Swag*' to try to stay calm. Kurt gave me a funny look but I kept on humming as a distraction. When the elevator dinged out our arrival at the penthouse, Kurt and me both drew a breath of nervousness. This was probably gonna be difficult.

 **A/N** : I am really sorry for this being late. I sincerely hope y'all are willing to stick with me through this. I've had almost no motivation to write this story lately. At all. And I'm also coming up with tons of new story ideas, so stay tuned for those. Thanks for sticking with the story thus far though, it really means a lot. Hope I'm doing okay and you enjoyed this chapter. Please review! I want to know how I'm doing! Tootles! :)

*Swag – Shatter Me by Lindsey Stirling


	8. Ch 7: The Fantastic Four

Chapter 7: The Fantastic Four

When the elevator doors opened, I was really surprised at the size of the place. It kind of made me think of the penthouse that Donald Trump lived in, just a whole lot less flashy. There weren't any crystal chandeliers dripping from the ceiling, marble everywhere, and expensive furniture.

It was a very casual, with a ton of open floor space, plain, pale blue walls with paintings in a few places, and it looked like someone had taken a small, casual family house and made it into the penthouse. The furniture was comfortable, made with soft brown fabric that changed shades when one swiped it a certain way. The floor was pretty much your run-of-the-mill tile, with a few cute rag rugs here and there. There was a fairly sizable oriental carpet underneath the furniture.

We were greeted at the end of the hall by a sweet blond lady that smiled and hugged Mrs. Walker around the half asleep toddler on her arms. His mom was a super sweet lady that insisted that we should call her Susan and told us to have a seat (this is how I found out about the fabric changing color) so she could put Franklin in bed (and I found out Franklin is the toddler, by the way).

When Susan came back, she gave us some lemonade and exchanged some brief pleasantries with Mrs. Walker before turning to Kurt and me.

"What are your names?" Susan asked kindly, with a motherly smile. "Neither of you have made a peep."

"Vell," Kurt started, "ve actually came to ask for help. I already called ze Avengers, but zey're not even in ze state, so zey can't help us."

Susan's brow furrowed, and she looked a little bit worried. "I'm sure Reed will be willing to pull the team together to help you guys out. I'll go back and ask him."

"Ask me what?" came the sudden, and definitely male, voice from behind us.

Susan looked over our heads and smiled. "These young people need help getting their friends out of danger. I told them I'd ask you if we would be able to help them."

"Of course, but we'll have to get Mrs. Walker back to her apartment first," said the man, coming up behind Susan. "She fell asleep. I'll get Johnny to do it."

The man that had come up behind her was evidently Reed. He was tall and slender, without being skinny, and had kind brown eyes with a sparkle of humor in them. He had brown hair that was cropped short with streaks of white just around his ears. He was wearing a casual outfit, but what stood out to me was the white lab coat he was wearing that had a mane tag that said "Dr. Richards" on it.

When he finished speaking, he turned around, the bottom of his coat filling with air, and went down the hall. He came back a few moments later with two guys following him. The one that really caught my attention was the large one. He was at least a foot or two taller than Mr. Richards, and looked like he was made of giant orange rocks. When he caught me looking at him, he gave me a gentle smile. I smiled back and he nodded.

The smaller one was only taller than Mr. Richards by a little bit. He had brown hair with a blond sheen to it and shot me a smile and a wink. I smiled back at him. He shook Mrs. Walker awake and helped her out of her seat to the elevator before coming back.

"So, what exactly is up that the whole team needs to be out here?" he asked, relaxing on the other side of Kurt on the couch. "If we're gonna go into space again, I don't wanna leave. We literally….."

"Johnny," Sue cut him off sharply, "we're all out here because these two need our help." She nodded toward Kurt and me. "We're not going into space. If all you can do is complain worse than Franklin ever does, then don't say anything."

Johnny sank down in his seat without another word.

"I don't mind being in space," came a gentle voice. "But if we could know what was going on, that would be nice."

It took me a few moments after he spoke to realize that it was the orange man that spoke. The quiet gentleness of his voice really caught me off-guard. I really wasn't expecting someone so large to have such a quiet voice.

"We're getting to that, Ben," Mr. Richards replied. He turned to Kurt and me with a look of expectation in his face. "I'm guessing you two didn't tell sweet Mrs. Walker the whole story."

"Ve didn't tell her everyzing because ve didn't vant to freak her out too much," Kurt said, rubbing the back of his neck. "I vasn't sure vhat she vould be able to handle, so ve gave her kind of a censored version."

"So what exactly happened that made you decide to come ask for help?" Sue asked gently.

"Magneto caught us off-guard and imprisoned everyone in our house," I replied. "Kurt and me were the only ones to escape and we don't want anything to happen to our friends. Will you help us?"

"Well, where are you from?" asked Mr. Richards. "I'm sure we can help you if we know a bit more about you and your friends."

"Ve're members of ze X-Men," Kurt replied matter of factly.

This warranted quite the reaction from Johnny. He jumped off the couch with a whoop and dashed off down the hall. When he came back, he had a roll of paper in his hands. He unrolled it and held it up, revealing a picture of Wolverine and Storm. He grinned.

"These are X-Men, right?" he asked. "The X-Men are awesome!"

"Ja, zey are X-Men," Kurt replied, shaking his head and smiling. "Zey're ze teachers at the school. And I'm sure zey vish everyone had your excitement about meeting zem."

"Awesome!" Johnny shouted. He turned to Sue and Mr. Richards. "We have to help them! They need us!" He grinned impishly before adding, "And I'd get to meet Wolverine."

"Johnny, we're going to help them because they need help, not just so you can meet your superhero," Mr. Richards said irritably, pinching the bridge of his nose. "What matters is that they get the help they need. Not that you get to meet Wolverine."

"I agree with Reed," said Ben, standing up. "We should get our uniforms on and get going before something worse happens to their friends."

"Alright, then," said Sue, standing up as well. "Let's go kick some butt. I'll go get my uniform on."

"Sue, we have to come up with a plan first," Mr. Richards said to her back, pinching the bridge of his nose again.

"Man, these people take forever to make up their minds about anything," Kurt whispered in my ear. "Und zere's only four of zem! Professor Xavier and Herr Logan take less tome to make a decision."

"Yeah, I'll bet it's only because they're old," I whispered back, trying to keep from laughing.

"Ja, old people make up zeir minds faster because zey have less to do," Kurt chuckled quietly, cracking a small grin.

"If you tow are done giggling at Johnny for bein' a blockhead, we're gonna get moving in the next few minutes," came Ben's chuckle from behind us. He nodded towards Kurt and continued speaking over his shoulder on his way to the door. "Blue Boy is gonna give us the lowdown on the way there, so it'd be a good idea to know what you're gonna say."

"I already know vhat to say," Kurt replied, standing up and stretching.

"Great, because we're going now," Sue declared, pulling her hair into a high ponytail.

"This is gonna be a blast," I muttered, standing up as well.

oOo

Within the next few minutes, we were on our way back to the mansion. Kurt was in the middle of telling everyone how to get past security when I drifted off. After all, it had been a long day for both of us, and it was almost one in the morning.

I woke up almost an hour and a half later to Kurt shaking me awake. He said something about sneaking into the house and getting something to eat. I came fully awake and tensed up when he mentioned the house, and asked him if he knew if everyone was okay. I asked him what was happening, because when I looked around, I realized the car was empty.

"Everyone is fine, Lost Girl," he replied in a soothing tone. "Ve got past ze security and set everyone free. Ve're vorking out some kinks in our plan at ze moment, but everyzing is turning out fine. I vas just vondering if you vanted to help us out," he finished, climbing out of the car. "Feel free to join us vhen you vant to help."

I leaned back with a sigh. _At least everyone's alive. I just hope Magneto gets a taste of his own medicine. He sure deserves it after treating Kurt's friends the way he did._

I sighed again and climbed out of the car. The cool night air felt refreshing after the heat of the day and being in the car. I stretched and looked around, locating the light where both teams were most likely gathered around, so I headed in that direction.

I got just to the edge of their makeshift camp, close enough to see that their light was a campfire, before feeling something cold pressed against my neck. I caught a whiff of cigarette smoke, seeing a flash of something in my minds' eye before reacting automatically.

I reached up, whirling around as I did it, grabbing his arm and slamming my elbow into his. I flipped him onto his back, catching him by surprise and putting my foot on his throat. My vision cleared from the haze of adrenaline to reveal Wolverine on the ground, gasping for air.

"Shit kid, let me get up," he gasped from his place on the ground. "I didn't... Realize... It was you. I need to…. Lemme breathe!"

"I'm…. I'm sorry," I said genuinely. He looked like he was gonna get really mad really fast if I said the wrong thing. I took my foot off of his throat so he could stand up. I felt the gentle strength of Kurt wrap around me from behind, as if in warning to Wolverine.

"That was good, kid," he grunted, standing up. He looked at me from head to toe. "Be careful who ya use that talent on, squirt. It could getcha inta some real trouble."

"You're so lucky!" Kurt whispered in my ear when Wolverine turned around. "You just got a compliment from ze fearsome Wolverine himself!"

"Yeah," I returned, "but I'm sure everyone's staring at me for it." I shifted uncomfortably in his arms. "It's making me nervous."

Kurt let go of me and stood at my side with a funky look on his face. "Zhey're all jealous. Not even I can do zat, und I'm, vas, one of ze few people on ze entire school zat could actually hol my own against him in a fight." He raised his eyebrow questioningly. "How exactly did you do zat anyvay?"

All I could do was shake my head at him. "I really don't know. I don't remember even being trained at all, much less anything I may have been trained in."

Kurt put his arm around my shoulders and gave me a reassuring squeeze. "Come on, you'll be fine. Ve'll figure it out. For now, though, I think ve should focus on ze problem at hand. Ve came up vith a plan, but ve need you to help us out. Come on, ve'll tell you all about it on ze vay back to ze Institute."

The plan was fiendishly clever, and kind of made me think of something someone would pull as a prank. But never, ever in a million years, did I think if was going to go the way it did.

oOo

 **A/N:** I'm really sorry my updates are inconsistent. Please don't be mad at me! And please, for the love of humanity and mutantkind, review! I wanna know how I'm doing!


	9. Ch 8: Higher Powers

Chapter 8: Higher Powers

As soon as Wolverine got past the security, I really started to question our plan. Kurt and me were to take a team of four and, "apprehend", as Mr. Fantastic put it, all of Magneto's followers, put power blocker things on them, and tie and gag them. Then we were supposed to set up a trap sort of like what the honey and string trick that the kids pulled in "The Parent Trap" in Magneto's room.

I was honestly really shocked that this plan had come from a bunch of adults. It sounded like a bunch of schoolboys had come up with it as a plan of revenge on a bully. Although, at the root of things, Magneto really was a bully. And he acted so full of himself, almost like he knew he was going to rule the world.

When we got into the house, all was quiet. It was completely dark, and everyone was obviously asleep. We got past the security without anything going off, and we breathed a collective sigh of relief.

Our team ended up splitting in half, with Kurt and me going down one wing of the building with Rogue, and three kids named Amara, Bobby, and Roberto going the other way. We explored all of the rooms on our side of the house, but the only one that was actually occupied was Professor Xavier's room, that Magneto had taken as his own (temporarily).

All of the rooms were so nice, I actually felt really horrible about destroying the room with toothpaste, string, and whatever else we used to prank ol' Mags the mighty.

After thoroughly exploring our side if the house, only to find that it was empty with the exception of Magneto, we crept into the office. The Prof's room is right off of the office.

Literally, when you go in there, you come in through one door and there's a door to the on the wall to your left that leads to the bedroom. The layout is actually really cool, and I'm sure it's also really useful (not to mention that the office is super nice).

We crept up to the bedroom door and Kurt whispered directions to us. When he finished giving us directions, we crept in and got and kind of explored the room, just to get a general idea of what we could put in various places.

I took care of the string, Rogue put the slimy stuff on it, and then we helped Kurt spread a gross mixture all over the room in various places. I found out later that the mixture was actually half toothpaste and half honey. It was a really disgusting yellow-green color, I guess because the toothpaste was spearmint. It smelled rancid too. All I wanted to do was plug my nose to block out the smell (when Kurt opened the container, we all dry heaved, it was so bad).

It didn't take us very long to finish, so we left (really quietly, so as to not wake up Magneto) and Kurt 'ported us over to the other wing of the building. When we got there, Amara reported that they had managed to get power blockers on everyone, Bobby looked ready to pass out from lack of sleep, and Roberto looked more proud than Magneto.

Kurt looked confused at Amara's report though. "How exactly did you get power blockers on all of zem vithout zem putting up a fight?" he asked, obviously skeptical.

"They were too sleepy to care about much," Amara replied with a shrug. "It was really nothing at all. The only one that started to question what was going on was Avalanche, but by the time he started asking questions, he already had the blockers on."

"At least they didn't really start anything," Rouge commented. "If they had, we'd be in huge trouble. Ah do kinda wish we coulda put one of them blockers on Magneto, though."

Kurt sighed a little and pinched the bridge of his nose.

"What's wrong?" Amara asked, looking curiously at Kurt.

"Rouge, I know now isn't ze most opportune time," he said, "but ve do study English in school. Please use it correctly."

She sighed in playful exasperation. "My brothah, the German, of all people, correcting me on mah English," she prodded playfully with a nudge. "Never thought I'd see the day."

Kurt gave her a playful nudge and a small smile in return. "I never thought zis vould happen either," he chuckled.

Rouge's comment caught me completely by surprise.

"Wait, you're related?" I asked, the shock apparent in my voice. "Neither of you look at all like you're related."

Kurt rubbed the bridge of his nose again.

"It's... Complicated," he replied. "I vould really have to go into a rather lengthy explanation for you to understand, and zat happens to be something ve don't really have time for currently."

I was about to answer when a very sleepy Bobby cut me off.

"When are we gonna go?" he asked. "I'm really sleepy and want to get back to camp."

Yeah, like that wasn't already obvious, dude. Practically falling asleep on your feet while saying the line. We got it. You're tired.

"We better get movin' before Wolverine has our heads for bein' late," said Rogue, already halfway down the hall. "And we don't want Magneto finding out we're here. That would only make things worse."

"Alright, let's go," Kurt said, shaking his head and still smiling from the exchange.

oOo

It didn't take us that long to get back to camp. It was pretty quiet, so I'm assuming almost everyone was asleep. We gave Wolverine our report, and I happened to notice he seemed a bit wary of me. That's what you get for giving me a big jump scare, I guess. Now he knows not to do it in the future. I still feel kind of bad about humiliating him in front of all of his students.

He seemed to be happy with our report, and let us go do what we wanted for a while. I voiced my concern about Wolverine to Rogue and Kurt, and they both told me that "it was fine" and "that he deserved a little taste of his own medicine for humiliating us on more than one occasion". I'm not sure if anyone else agreed with that, but I guess I'd have to ask someone about it in the morning.

oOo

I was woken up the next morning to the ground shaking rather violently, and I heard someone shout some corny line about how we "were gonna rock 'n roll". Seriously, if you're gonna make a pun, at least try to make it a little bit laughable. All that line deserved was a pity laugh because of how terrible it was.

The shaking ground obviously had something bad connected to it, because all it did was cause a bunch of commotion. Everyone was running around punching people and dodging projectiles of various sorts. I recognized Pyro, and the blond metal guy with the corn chip nails. I'm sure if I'd had more time to look around, I would've recognized more people, but things started flying towards my face.

I ducked and weaved, not catching sight of Nightcrawler or Rogue, but of Kitty instead. I made my way over to her, and asked her what was going on. She was more than happy to tell me, but made several comments about punching Avalanche. I'm going to take the liberty of leaving those out.

"I'm, like, guessing Magneto woke up to the trap you guys left last night and decided to get back at us for it," she told me, phasing me through several different projectiles. "From what Amara told me, you guys, like, left a really big mess. I will say that old Magneto definitely deserved it though, after betraying us, especially the New Mutants, the way he did about two years back."

This line really piqued my curiosity. Magneto betrayed them? What did he do? How did he do it? Is that how he was able to get in and surprise us all so easily?

I wanted to press Kitty for details, but we had to regroup, and somehow come up with a plan, or things were only going to get worse. But I guess the advantage of training is that you learn to not only listen for orders given on the spot, but one can shout them at the top of your lungs on the spot as well.

Wolverine and Storm both picked up a bunch of slack and started barking orders, which we all promptly followed. Kitty and me were told to "take care of Avalanche". When we got the order, Kitty got the most evil grin on her face.

"What's the grin for?" I asked. This must have something to do with the evilly crude comments she said earlier.

"A really long time ago," she said, phasing us through another projectile, "I dated Lance. Everyone hated me for it at the time, but left me alone because Wolverine gave them some stupid lengthy lecture about how I would "learn from my mistakes". She used air-quotes for the last part.

"Why did you date him if you knew no one would approve?" I pressed. I really wanted to know what those nasty comments were for.

"Well," she started, pulling me down into a crawling position with her as she started counting reasons on her fingers. "One, he acted like he loved me and used it not only to cheat but exploit me on multiple occasions. Two, he cheated on me really badly, like, five times. Three, he almost always made fun of things I did and instead of apologizing, made some comment about how he was 'being sarcastic'", more air quotes were used here, "and then let it slide completely."

We had gotten to where we needed to go, and Kitty stood up and offered me a hand to stand up. I took it, standing and brushing myself off at the same time. I was about to ask another question about Lance, but Kitty put a finger to her lips and gestured for me to follow her.

From where we were, neither of us could hear any battle noise. We crept into the bushes, and knelt down right behind the spot where Lance was standing a minute ago, and simply watched.

Magneto had appeared, floating above everyone's heads and apparently brought the entire fight to a grinding halt. He was currently floating in a way that all of the X-Men could see him, making a "grand speech" (it's in quotes because I say that lightly) in that stuck up way of his. The first line we heard, however, rooted us to our spot in fear.

"Wolverine," he spoke in the kind of voice that would be full of echo in a cartoon. "Bring the girl to me. I know you have her. She is important to higher powers. If you give her to me, I promise to let Charles go."

"Who the hell are you talking about?" snarled Wolverine in contempt. "We ain't got no girl that's important to you." He seriously looked ready to lose it.

"Yes, Wolverine, I believe you do," Magneto replied, floating down to the ground. "You have the missing daughter of one Nathaniel Essex under your roof."

"You're working for SINISTER?!" Wolverine roared. "I didn't even know he had a daughter! How am I even supposed to know who she is or what she looks like?! Much less if she's even evil or not?!"

 _This Sinister guy must be a really big deal if this whole thing made Wolverine so angry. I wonder who he is. What does he do? Who's his daughter? Why is she such a big deal?_

Magneto's lips curled up into an evil smile and he gave a cool chuckle. "I was informed that a certain student of yours rescued a girl in an alley. One with black scales and brown hair, with natural streaks of red..."

The entire clearing went dead silent. I could feel Kitty's eyes on me. All I could do was look at the ground in shock. She was probably feeling the same way, because she put her arm around my shoulder.

 _I'm the daughter of a villain worse than Magneto? What am I gonna do?_

oOo

 **A/N:** I had fun writing this chapter. But (there's always a but) I really, _really,_ want to know how I did. Please, review! I want to know what y'all think! Really, your opinions matter.

 **A/N 2:** If my updates are inconsistent, it's because I'm in in high school and my studying takes priority over any writing that I may want to do (or have already started). My mom decided to take my summer away and force me to do school online for the summer. Please don't get mad at me for this. It's not my fault. My mom can do some weird stuff sometimes. Please don't be mad at me. I still want reviews though! Keep 'em comin'!


	10. Ch 9: I Don't Remember Anything

Chapter 9: I Don't Remember Anything

Magneto smiled evilly at the looks of shock on everyone's faces. Kurt sank to his knees, shaking his head with his hands tangled in his hair.

 _I don't even remember having a family. Much less who my dad was. Why should they have to suffer just for rescuing me? They're all good people, all they want to do is help others, and this is what they get._

"I was sent to take her back to her father," Magneto continued. "If you hand her over to me, I'll leave peacefully. If you refuse, the consequences could be... Dire."

"If ve hand her over to you, and you give her to Sinister, she'll most likely be tortured!" Kurt shouted from his place on the ground. "What vould Sinister even vant with her anyway?"

Magneto floated back into the air. "Some time with his own daughter, perhaps? I'll give you three days to come to a decision concerning the girl. If I don't get a response within that time, I will send someone myself."

"What about Charles?" came Storm's query. "Is he unharmed?"

"Charles is unharmed," came Magneto's faint reply. "He's still in the house. He was left alone. All we did was lock him in his room."

Magneto floated away without another word, his minions following suit. Kurt was still on the ground, in what seemed to be shock. He had untangled his hands from his hair, but was still shaking his head slightly. I was still in shock from the revelation, so I can't really blame him.

According to what he told me about my being located while I was getting my wardrobe from Kitty, Professor Xavier had picked up my mutant genetics on Cerebro. Apparently, the signature I put off was super strong because a team was sent out almost immediately. The team was Storm, Wolverine, Kurt, Jean, and Rogue.

Wolverine had picked up the sent of my attackers mingled with mine and was following that scent. Kurt was the one actually following me, and was able to save me from something that was actually far worse than what we all thought.

Kitty pitched in at this point and said that there were actually two attackers (according to Rogue), because I had originally thought there were three. Kurt then explained that they were most likely followers of whomever may have wanted me, or they really just wanted to pick up someone on the street.

Kurt said he actually had to fight back really intensely before the guys took off. He then barely had time to catch me before I passed out in his arms and was out even a few hours after I first arrived. He also mentioned that I had a dirty blue backpack on that we had to pull off of me before I could be carried anywhere.

Honestly, when they rescued me, I couldn't remember anything other than the fact I had woken up in a room sort of like the infirmary at the Institute, and that I had run away out of complete fear. I had probably been on the run for quite a while by the time they found me, by the description Kitty gave of how dirty I was.

Kitty started to pill me out of the bushes when I remembered the detail about the backpack. That's what pulled me out of my daze. I needed to remember. I had to find out what was in that bag. I pulled against her grip making her stop.

"What are you doing?" she asked, a look of confusion coming over her delicate features.

"I have to find my bag," I told her. "There might be clues as to where I came form that could help us. Do you know where it is?"

"Yeah, it was handed off to Rogue," she replied. "It's still in my room. We could go get it…. But we should really help them out."

"From what I can see, I don't think it would even be a good idea at all for me to go near them," I shot back. "And maybe, just maybe, there would be clues to my origin in the bag. Come on, Kitty. Please?"

Kitty sighed in defeat. "Fine. But if we get in trouble for taking off, you have to take the blame. This is your idea."

I nodded vigorously. "I'm okay with that. Let's just go!"

I took off across the lawn towards the front door. I don't think Kitty was expecting for me to run, because she didn't catch up to me until I stopped on the landing halfway up the stairs to catch my breath. She led me the rest of the way to her room, where I knew discoveries were about to be made.

oOo

The bag was indeed on Rouge's side of the room, just like Kitty said it would be. She pulled it out from underneath the foot of Rouge's bed after a minute or two with a cry of victory. I took it when she pulled it out and made another discovery almost right after opening it.

It was actually a violin case as well as a backpack, and there happened to actually be a violin inside. This discovery confused me quite a bit.

 _Do I play this thing, or did I just steal it because it was a bag? I don't think I even would have known it was a violin if Kitty hadn't told me what it was._

We seemed to silently agree to leave the violin alone and find out about it later. I opened the actual bag part, and found a bunch of files. Just as we were about to start opening them up all over the floor, Rouge came in.

"Prof X wants to see Lost Girl in his office," she announced.

 _Wow. Practically everyone has picked up that silly nickname at this point. I wonder if it'll ever go away._

She took a second look at the files all over the floor, and her face seemed to pale dramatically.

"Where exactly did all this stuff come from?" she asked in a small voice.

I exchanged a look with Kitty. "Kitty and me pulled it out of my bag. Why do you ask?"

"You might want to take that with you," was her reply. "It might help us unravel this whole mystery. Better get going. Don't wanna keep the Prof waiting."

Kitty and me hurriedly packed up all the files and followed Rogue to the Professor's office. It was exactly the way it looked when Magneto was there, except the big desk chair was gone because of the Prof's wheelchair. The Professor was sitting behind the desk now, looking very worried and careworn, even though his eyes were closed.

Kitty and I sat tentatively in the seats, waiting for any sort of response from the kindly man. He had his fingers tented in front of his face, with his elbows on the armrests of his chair, not saying a word. It felt like we were sitting there forever, just because he didn't say anything.

Finally, he spoke. Just the fact he spoke made us sigh in relief.

"So, I was informed by Logan that one of you lovely young ladies is the daughter of Sinister," he said, in a calming tone. "I promise I will let no harm come to you, as long as you tell me anything you possibly can of your past. I simply want to make sure you're not intending to harm anyone under my roof."

I shot Kitty a very alarmed look. She only shrugged in response. I took a calming breath before speaking.

"I don't remember anything at all, sir," I tell him, my voice shaking a little. "I don't even remember where I came from. I only have a few extremely vague memories of running away from somewhere. I just felt the need to run. I just feel like I should always be moving from place to place. I might even leave this place eventually, just to go somewhere else."

The elder professor looked at me steadily. I didn't feel anything but his eyes on me for a second, but then started to get a strange sensation at the back of my skull, almost as if...

I instinctively pushed back. I don't know how else to say it. I pushed back with my mind and Professor Xavier squeezed his eyes shut, almost as if he was in pain. I eased off, and he took a calming breath before opening his eyes again. Kitty gave me a really strange look I couldn't quite read. I shrugged, just because I didn't know what to do.

"Well, at least I know not to do that again," said the Professor, rubbing his temples with his fingertips. "How, exactly, did you learn to defend yourself in that fashion? To keep others out?"

I shrugged. "I honestly don't know. I just did that on instinct," I replied. "What exactly did I do? I don't really understand."

He tented his fingers again. "That, young lady, was an extremely strong psi-bolt. Had you maintained it, it had the potential to have knocked me unconscious after about a minute. It was quite strong, and was evidence that you have been trained in the past."

At this explanation, Kitty's eyes got round as saucers. She was probably just as shocked as I was. I had had training to defend myself against psychics?! Nothing was making sense. At. All. I can feel a headache coming on at the information.

 _What can all this mean? What's gonna happen? This is too much. My head hurts with it all._

I lean forward in my chair, putting my head almost on my knees. "Is there any way nothing will happen to anyone if I just leave?" I ask quietly. "I can take all of my stuff and go. This is bringing you so much trouble. Why keep me here in the first place?"

Professor Xavier rolled his chair next to mine and placed a gentle hand on my shoulder before speaking again.

"If you stay here, child, we can protect you," he said gently. "If you simply go out into the word, and end up who knows where, they could find you, possibly torture you, and you wouldn't be able to defend yourself. We will find a way to help you, if you let us. I promise, if you stay here, nothing will happen to you."

"How do you know nothing's gonna happen to any of your charges, though?" I sniffle, starting to cry from the stress and fear. "I could get one of them hurt. Or even worse, killed. I don't want that to happen. All anyone around here has done is be kind and treated me like one of their own. I couldn't bear the thought of them getting hurt."

By this time, I'm actually on the verge of sobbing and there's actually tears dripping onto the floor. Kitty had come over to me and was rubbing my back in soothing circles. It helped a little bit, but I really just wanted to leave. I wanted to leave everything behind, and not have to worry about getting all of these wonderful people hurt.

"Can Kurt come in here?" I asked, actually starting to sob. "I want Kurt."

I felt Kitty's hand stop rubbing my back, and faintly heard the door open and close over my own crying. I tried so hard to get it under control, but that just seemed to make it worse. At some point, I slid onto the floor and leaned up against the desk. The Professor's hand didn't leave my shoulder, and he started rubbing it in a soothing motion.

I started to calm down slightly when I heard the door again. Professor Xavier stopped rubbing my shoulder and I felt a pair of strong arms encircle me, along with the scent of cinnamon and brimstone. I calmed down a bit more, knowing I was safe with Kurt, and buried myself in his chest.

He willingly pulled me closer, and took on the soothing circle action on my back that Kitty had been doing previously.

"I'm here, it's okay, you're going to be okay," he said into my ear soothingly. "Ve'll be alright. Nothing is going to happen to us. Ve'll figure it out."

With him gently saying this anthem of soothing words in my ear, and the exhaustion of crying, I drifted off to sleep in Nightcrawler's arms.

oOo

 **A/N:** I know there's a lot of exposition in this chapter that wasn't explained in the previous chapters. That's because I didn't want to have to write a story within a story in an earlier chapter. I was still getting my ideas straight. Please don't be mad at me for this. I just wanted to wait until later in the story to explain things after Magneto showed up. Also, PLEASE review! This truly is my first story, and I REALLY want to know if it's any good or not.


	11. Ch 10: I Wish I could Help

**A/N:** Okay, guys. I'm doing something a little different for this chapter. You might me hate for it, but it's going to be from Nightcrawler's point of view. I know. I'm crazy. And the next chapter might just be this one from Gypsy's point of view (complete with nightmare), but I'm not sure yet. We'll see. I just hope it isn't horrible.

Chapter 10: I Wish I Could Help

Lost Girl drifted off in my arms, her sobbing slowly quieting to sniffles, then to complete silence.

 _Why did this have to happen to her? Is there anything I can do? She can't always live like this. It would kill her eventually. I wish I could help her. She finally felt safe, and Magneto had to come in and ruin it all. I hope she doesn't do anything to herself. I would hate to see her depressed, she seems like such a genuinely sweet and tenderhearted girl._

I turned to the Professor. "Is it alright for me to take Lost Girl to my room?" I asked. "I want to make sure no one bothers her."

"Do as you see fit, Kurt," Professor X replied. "I'm leaving her in your care. I trust you will make sure nothing happens to her."

I nodded, picking up Lost Girl off the floor. "Nothing will happen to her, Herr Professor. I'll make sure of it."

I left the room, pulling the door shut behind me with my tail. Herr Logan and Miss Ororo had ushered everyone to their rooms, and I passed Logan in the hall. He was probably making sure everyone stayed in their rooms until all the adults figured out what to do.

We have a mutual understanding of each other, and we tend to nod in acknowledgment when we walk by each other. I knew he was obviously preoccupied, because he forgot to nod when I walked by him on the way to my room.

When I got to my room, I laid Lost Girl on my bed and covered her up, without waking her up. I'm really glad of that. Who knows what she'd do if she woke up like that. The poor girl's already going through enough, I just hope I don't make it worse.

I sat next to the bed to make sure she didn't wake up alone. And to think. So much had happened in such a shot amount of time, I'm sure I wasn't the only one that needed to sit and think in order to process what happened.

 _No one rejected me when we found out my mother is Mystique. Everyone was really encouraging, and they were there for me when I needed them most. I really hope they do the same thing for Lost Girl._

 _We hardly know her, but she's really in the same situation Herr Logan is. She can't remember who she is, where she came from, or pretty much anything about her past. She can't even remember her own name. I just hope I can do something, anything, to help her. She seems like such a sweet girl. She just has to find out who she is. Maybe I can get Logan to help us figure things out._

I was brought out of my thoughts when I realized Lost Girl was having a nightmare. She was flailing around and panting like she was running. I got up, grabbing her wrists and holding them down to make sure she wouldn't get hurt. I didn't want to wake her up for fear of having her lash out.

Scott woke me up from a nightmare once, and I bit his arm really badly when I lashed out. I ended up apologizing to him for a week before he finally got fed up and made me stop. I don't want her to feel that guilty for hurting me.

Lost Girl cried out, her eyes springing open and darting around the room for a few seconds before focusing on me. She looked afraid, almost like something was out to get her. I let go of her wrists so she could sit up. Instead she curled into a ball, with her armed around her legs and her head buried in her knees.

"You're not going to leave, are you?" she whispered, still panting slightly. "I'm really scared no one wants me around."

"I'm not going to leave," I said trying to be comforting. "I'll be here when you need me. I'm sure Herr Professor will be here too, and everyone else."

She uncurled from her ball and sat up shakily, running her hand nervously through her hair. "I... I think my name is Kaylin. Someone called me that in my... Dream." She exhaled, running her hands through her hair again in an agitated motion.

I raised my eyebrow, my curiosity piqued. "Do you remember anything else? A face? Maybe a voice?"

"No, I don't remember any voices in particular," she replied. "All I really remember is someone saying my name. And really, really intense pain. Almost like someone was jabbing me with a million swords in a dozen different places at the same time."

I sighed, falling back on the end of the bed. I dragged my hands over my face, really unsure of how to proceed.

 _I really should have her talk to Logan. He would know what to do about this. All my nightmares are from when I was in the circus, and that's a completely different kind of torture. These two were both lab rats. I don't know how to help with that._

"You could always ask Herr Logan or Professor Xavier for help," I sighed. "I don't have... Experience... With this sort of thing. I'm sure they could help."

"Even if I go to someone else for help, will you come with me?" Kaylin asked, running her fingers through her hair and starting to cry again. "I really don't want to do this alone, and I really want you to come with me."

I rolled over, sitting up. I pulled Kaylin into a hug, resting my cheek in her hair and rubbing her back in slow circles. She curled into my chest, her sniffles quieting.

"Don't worry, Kaylin," I whispered. "I'll be here, no matter what happens."

oOo

We ended up waiting until dinner was over to talk to Logan. Professor Xavier decided a few minutes after Kaylin woke up to let everyone out of their rooms for dinner. It was required that everyone show up for the meal, but he seemed to understand when I appeared without Kaylin.

I'm guessing that he wanted to let her recover somewhat from the whole fiasco before making her face an entire room full of people. I'm sure Kaylin was thanking her lucky stars that he didn't force her to come out of my room. Bless the Professor's heart for that.

Dinner was a very quiet and subdued affair that night, and when anyone spoke, it was simply to ask for one of the dishes of food or for one of the condiments to be passed to them. The adults had a very subdued conversation, but I'm assuming most of it was telepathic.

Etiquette was also thrown out the window a little bit too. I'm guessing one of the adults had given directions for things to be done that way. Usually, when someone is finished with their food, they ask to be excused, then leave their dishes on the table for whomever has dish duty to collect when the meal ended.

But, instead of everyone doing it the way we normally do, each person simply left the table when they were finished, not saying a word. They would take their dishes with them. I'm assuming that they were to wash their own plate and silverware before going back to their rooms.

By the time I left the table, half of the mansion's occupants had left the table. I got up to take my dishes to the kitchen, and Professor Xavier gave me a telepathic message.

 _I would like to speak to you and Lost Girl in the library,_ he requested. _Please tell her that I will not force her to tell me anything she does not wish for me to know. She's rather fragile at the moment, and I would like for you to be there._

 _I'll tell her,_ I replied. _If she doesn't want to, should I make her come, or should I just let her be?_

 _If she doesn't want to come, I understand,_ he said. _If she needs time, by all means give it to her. She needs time to figure things out, but let her know that we are here for her. The most important thing is for her to have some sort of support system._

 _I just hope we can help her,_ I thought, entering the kitchen. I could feel the Professor withdrawing from my mind, and I'm sure we had the same thought in our minds.

I did find that my hunch about the dishes was true, however. I washed my plate and silverware and left them on the rack. I noticed a plate covered in foil on the counter with a piece of paper sitting on top of it.

I walked over to it and noticed that the paper had my name on it in Ororo's handwriting. I opened it, and it was worded something like this:

 _Kurt,_

 _I was told that your friend was not expected to come down to dinner, so I saved some back for her. If you could make sure she eats at least half of what I gave her (Hank's orders), that would be wonderful._

 _Give her my best for me (a hug would work :-))._

 _Ororo_

I grabbed some utensils and 'ported back up to my room. I found Kaylin sitting on the floor next to the balcony doors looking out of them, with her knees drawn up to her chest and her arms wrapped around them. Her cheek was resting on the tops of her knees and her eyes were shut. She actually looked really relaxed and I really didn't want to bother her.

I set them plate on the nightstand, and she lifted her head up, opening her eyes to look at me. She crinkled her forehead confusedly and stood up. She walked over, looking at the plate suspiciously, almost like she expected it to explode.

"What's that?" she asked, almost like it could be a bomb.

"It's dinner," I said. "Ororo made it. It's delicious."

"I- I guess I can try it," Kaylin replied, lifting up a bit of the foil and peering underneath it cautiously. "What is it exactly?"

"Some mashed potatoes, green beans, and a few pieces of roast meat," I replied. _She seems really cautious about food. I wonder why..._

Kaylin looked back at me, looking slightly alarmed and slowly backing away from the plate. "Is your throat feeling... Weird at all?" she asked.

I was honestly a bit taken aback by her question. _Why would my throat feel funny from eating dinner unless I was sick already or getting sick?_

I shook my head, completely bewildered by the question. "Why would my throat feel funny just from eating dinner? Nothing Ororo has ever made has had anything bad in it. Not unless one of the other people here is allergic to it."

Kaylin started to look a bit uncomfortable. "The last time I ate something that I can remember," she explained, "it made my throat all scratchy and weird. I don't really eat a lot of food unless I made it myself or have seen everything that went into it."

 _What is she scared of? Poison? Some sort of drug?_

"I can eat a bite if you want me to," I said slowly, choosing my words carefully. "Is that okay with you?"

"It would make me feel a little better," Kaylin replied, still definitely uneasy.

I unwrapped the plate, throwing the foil in the trash. The food made my entire room smell fantastic, but it seemed to only make Kaylin more uneasy. I took a small forkful of potatoes and green beans, savoring the flavor before swallowing.

Kaylin still looked extremely uneasy, so I held out my arm in a gesture that would suggest a hug. She willingly leaned into me in such a way that I could easily speak into her ear.

"You know, Ororo cooks all the time around here," I told her, gently tucking a stray strand of hair behind her ear. "She would never hurt another living soul unless she was really forced into it and was given no other choice. She was actually on the brink of quitting the X-Men for a while, until Herr Professor told her that she only had to do rescue missions. I honestly don't think anything at all malicious could ever come out of that woman. She has to be one of the kindest people I've ever met in my entire life."

Kaylin looked up at me, smiling slightly. "That was quite the speech," she said, giving me an actual hug. "I'll try to eat some of it. But if I can't finish, do you promise to eat it for me so none of it's wasted?"

I felt myself smiling. "I have a high metabolism. If you don't start eating really soon, I may wolf it down before you even get a crumbs worth." I winked at her, trying to be cheerful.

Kaylin managed a small smile. "I'll try to eat it." Her smile faded. "I have a feeling I'm supposed to do more than just eat dinner, though. Do I have to go talk to Professor Xavier?"

 _Dang! How does this girl catch on so fast? I was nowhere near telling her that._

I sighed, letting my head fall backwards. "Ja, we have to talk to Professor X as soon as you're done eating." I turned to her with a questioning look.

Kaylin smiled, starting before I could. "Rational reasoning," she said, answering my unasked question. "I knew I was going to have to do it eventually." She popped a green bean in her mouth with a smile. "How about we have that talk right now?"

She slipped out of my arms and was out the door before I could catch up to her.

oOo

 **A/N:** I hope I did a good job. Please, please review. I really, really want feedback. What others think of my stories really matters, and I want to know if I should keep going. I probably will anyway, but I still want thoughts and opinions.


	12. Ch 11: Dinner, Hugs, and a Talk

Chapter 11: Dinner, Hugs, and a Talk

 _I opened my eyes, with the distinct feeling in my gut that something was wrong. All I could see was darkness. It was the kind of impenetrable darkness that make one feel like they were in the smallest room in the world. It was so dark I literally had to touch my face in order to see my hand. Darker even than midnight without the moon._

" _Kaylin," came a dark, menacing voice. "Kaylin, come to me. It's your father. I know you want to come to me..."_

 _The voice faded away then came back again, saying the same thing in the peculiar voice. It still sent shivers down my spine, and even though my gut told me not to, I followed it. It faded in and out, and I followed it down what I assumed was some sort of really wide hallway. I reached out to my sides and in front of me and couldn't feel anything._

 _I kept going, even though my gut kept telling me to go the other way. I eventually touched something made of wood. I ran my hands along it, finding a doorknob. I turned it, surprised when the door creaked open._

 _I stepped inside, a faint light hitting my face. After being in the dark for so long, even the faint light made me wince. I felt large hands grab my upper arms and pull me into the room, the door shutting behind me. They lifted me up by the place where they had grabbed me and set me on the table._

 _An extremely bright light came on above me, forcing me to close my eyes. The men strapped me securely to the table. I opened my eyes slightly, slowly becoming accustomed to the light. I saw the silhouettes of several people standing over me, unable to make out whatever they were whispering to each other._

 _An oxygen mask was put over my mouth and nose, and I felt pressure all around my body, like I was being dunked in a pool of water. I closed my eyes, unsure of what was going to happen next._

 _I screamed. What came next was pure agony. It felt like I was being stabbed in a million different places at the same time with millions of flaming swords. My throat was getting raw from screaming so much._

" _Kaylin, you are so special," came the voice again._

 _The last thing I saw was a bright red diamond, glowing in the far darkness of the room._

oOo

I jumped awake, gasping with my heart pounding a mile a minute. Someone was holding my wrists to the bed and when my vision focused, it was Kurt. He wasn't holding them hard enough for it to hurt me, just so I wasn't thrashing around. When I focused on him, he let go of my wrists.

I curled into a ball, trying to breathe deeply and calm down.

 _Is Kurt going to leave? Are they going to make me leave? What's gonna happen to me? Where am I going to go if they make me leave?_

"You're not going to leave, are you?" I asked, unsure if he could even hear my whisper. "I'm really scared no one wants me around."

"I'm not going to leave," Kurt said softly. "I'll be here vhen you need me. I'm sure Herr Professor vill be here too, and everyone else."

I uncurled from my ball, sitting up and running my hand through my hair. "I... I think my name is Kaylin. Someone called me that in my... Dream." I ran my hand through my hair nervously.

"Do you remember anything else?" Kurt asked. "A face? Maybe a voice?"

"No, I don't remember any voices in particular," I replied. "All I really remember is someone saying my name. And really, really intense pain. Almost like someone was jabbing me with a million swords in a dozen different places in the same time."

Kurt fell back on the bed with a sigh, wiping his hands over his face. He definitely looked really unsure of what to do next.

"You could always ask Herr Logan or Professor Xavier for help," he said. "I don't have... Experience... With zis sort of thing. I'm sure they could help."

"Even if I do go to someone else for help, will you come with me?" I asked, running my hands through my hair, feeling tears run down my face. "I really don't want to do this alone, and I really want you to come with me."

I put my face in my hands, starting to cry. I felt Kurt pull me into a hug and rub my back in gentle circles. He put his head on top of mine and I curled into his chest. It was really comforting and calming.

"Don't vorry, Kaylin" he whispered. "I'll be here no matter vhat happens."

oOo

We ended up deciding to wait until after dinner was over to talk to Logan about my... Nightmare. Not long after I woke up, Ororo actually sent Kitty to Kurt's room to notify us. He ended up going down to dinner without me because I wasn't hungry.

He was gone for a few minutes when I decided to get out of bed. I got up and wandered over to the window. I pulled the curtain back slightly to look out and noticed they were actually doors onto a balcony. But they were still windows, and I wanted to look outside.

I settled down on the floor next to the doors, pulling my knees up to my chest. I rapped my arms around them, pilling them closer and resting my cheek on the tops of my knees. I examined what I could see out the window with the balcony blocking my view.

 _What will Mr. Logan do when I tell him about my nightmare?_ I thought, closing my eyes. _Will he be willing to help, or will he ignore it and do something else instead? I really hope he's willing to listen and help. I kinda feel like the only people that really want to be here for me are Kitty, Kurt, Rogue, and Professor Xavier. Maybe Kurt will be able to tell me whether or not anyone said anything at dinner about it._

My thoughts turned to nothing eventually, and I was kind of in a state halfway between being asleep and awake. I'm not sure how long I was sitting that way before Kurt came back in, but it couldn't have been very long.

I heard a small click and curiosity made me look for the source of the sound. I turned my head, and Kurt was standing next to the nightstand and something silver was sitting there. I looked at it curiously, standing and walking over to him.

"What's that?" I asked, suspicious about what might be in it.

"It's dinner," Kurt replied. "Ororo made it. It's delicious."

"I-I guess I can try it," I replied, lifting the foil and trying to get a good look at whatever was on the plate. "What is it exactly?"

"Some mashed potatoes, green beans, and a few pieces of roast meat," Kurt told me.

I backed away from it, unsure. _I didn't make that. I don't know what they could have put in it. I certainly don't know what they put in it._

"Is your throat feeling… Weird at all?" I asked nervously.

Kurt looked a little shocked at the question, shaking his head.

"Why vould my throat feel funny just from eating dinner?" he asked. "Nothing Ororo has ever made has had anything bad in it. Not unless one of the other people her is allergic to it."

This statement made me a bit uncomfortable. _I'll bet he's wondering why I'm so scared to eat. All of my questions are probably scaring him a little bit. Maybe I should explain…._

"The last time I ate something that I can remember," I said, feeling a little bit silly, "it made my throat all scratchy and weird. I don't really eat a lot of food unless I made it myself or have seen everything that went into it."

The gears were definitely turning in the sweet boy's head at this point. I could tell by the look on his face. Definitely a thinking look.

"I could eat a bite if you vant me to," he said slowly. "Is that okay vith you?"

 _He's willing to do that for me because I'm nervous? There's no end to the wonderfully kind things this boy does for me, is there?_

"It would make me feel a little better," I answered, still nervous.

He unwrapped the plate, an amazing scent of roasted meat filling the room. He threw away the foil, grabbing the fork to dig in. For some reason the wonderful smell just made me even more nervous. He took a forkful of potatoes and green beans, obviously enjoying the food.

Kurt swallowed the bite of food, I guess picking up that I was really nervous. He held out his arm, suggesting he wanted to give me a hug. I gladly leaned into him, feeling his strong but gentle arms wrap around me.

"You know," he said, tucking a stray strand o hair gently behind my ear, "Ororo cooks all the time around here. She vould never hurt another living soul unless she was really forced into it. She vas actually on ze brink of quitting ze X-Men for a while, until Herr Professor told her zat she only had to do rescue missions. I honestly don't think anything at all malicious could ever come out of such a kind woman. She's one of ze kindest people I've met in my entire life."

I looked up at Kurt, feeling a slight smile start to curl my lips upwards. "That was quite the speech," I said, giving him a big hug. "I'll try to eat some of it. But if I can't finish, you promise to eat it for me so none of it's wasted?"

Kurt smiled sweetly at me. "I have a high metabolism. If you don't start eating really soon, I may wolf it down before you get a crumbs' worth." He winked cheerfully, probably trying to make me laugh.

I managed a small smile in return. "I'll try to eat it." I could feel my smile fading. "I have a feeling I'm supposed to do more than just eat dinner, though. Do I have to go talk to Professor Xavier?"

Another "gears are turning in his brain" look came over Kurt's face. He sighed, his head falling backwards even though we were standing up.

"Ja, ve have to talk to Professor X as soon as you're done eating," Kurt said. He looked at me questioningly, some sort of inquiry obviously right on the tip of his tongue.

I smiled at him, speaking before the question even left his lips. "Rational reasoning," I said. "I knew I was going to have to do it eventually." I reached for a green bean, popping it in my mouth. "How about we have that talk right now?"

I slipped out of Kurt's arms and was out the door before he could say another word. I dashed to the door of the Professor's office, waiting for Kurt to follow.

oOo

Kurt teleported next to me within about a minute of me standing by the door. He had a bit of mashed potato around his mouth. He had obviously eaten some of what was (or had been) on the plate. He gave me a goofy, lopsided grin, reaching past me and opening the door a crack.

"After you, milady," I heard him whisper.

I pushed the door open a bit more, reaching behind me to grab Kurt's hand. He gave my hand a comforting squeeze, almost like he was saying, "Go. I'm right behind you". I took another step forward, sticking my head through the door.

I saw the kindly old professor sitting behind his desk, writing quickly on some sort of papers. He stopped writing for a moment, moving some of the papers in front of him to another part of the desk before resting his elbows on it and rubbing his temples.

I quietly knocked on the door, catching his attention. He looked up, giving me a kind smile. I waved slightly, and he gestured for me to enter. I crept in, Kurt closing the door almost silently behind us.

"Is it okay if we talk now?" I asked.

"Of course we can," he said, moving more papers around on his desk.

Kurt and me sat down in the chairs, waiting for the Professor to say something.

oOo

 **A/N:** I feel like this this chapter is a bit longer than some of my other ones. It definitely tired out my poor writers' brain. Please review!


	13. Ch 12: Well, That Happened

Chapter 12: Well, That Happened

Professor Xavier tented his fingers and started to speak.

"What, exactly, do you propose to do about your... Situation?" he asked.

"I was kind of hoping if you would be able to read my mind," I replied. "Maybe you could find some old memories or something. I'm not really sure what we really should look for, honestly."

"Well, that is a good place to start," he said, wheeling his chair around his desk. "Is there anything you would want me to know before we begin?"

 _Should I tell him about the nightmare?_ I thought. _Maybe he'll figure out what it means without me telling him at all. And then I could tell him about it after, if we find out what it is._

"I did have a nightmare," I said slowly. "I don't remember much about it but being in pain, though. Is that a good place to start?"

I saw Kurt shoot me a weird look out of the corner of my eye. He probably wasn't expecting me to bring that up so soon. It had just happened, after all. I can kind of understand if he was a little bit concerned, but it just seemed like the kind of thing that might help us figure things out.

"That may be ideal," Professor Xavier answered. "Is there anything in particular you think I should know before I try to help you?"

I shook my head. "I can't think of anything. Did you have anything in mind?"

"No, but I thought you might eventually ask if Kurt could be there," he replied, tenting his fingers again.

 _Dang, anyone and everyone picks up really fast that I trust Kurt a lot. I don't even have to say anything. I mean, he did rescue me from... Okay, I shouldn't be thinking about that right now. Focus, girl! Talk to him!_

"Yeah, I do really want Kurt to come with me," I replied. "Unless you think I should try to do it one on one with you," I added quickly.

"I would very much like for you to try doing it on your own, though I don't mind Kurt being in the room," the Professor replied. "I understand that you trust him more than anyone else at the moment, but he won't always be here to be your security blanket. Do you understand What I mean?"

I nodded, falling back in my chair a little bit. I understood perfectly. I just didn't want to admit that he had hit the nail on the head and sent it driving into the depths of whatever surface it was on. Kurt really was my security blanket of sorts, and I felt like I was trapped somewhere I didn't want to be when he wasn't around. I guess because he was the one that had rescued me from such an awful situation, I just knew in my heart of hearts that he would never ever do anything to me and would protect me from anything if I asked him to.

I sighed. "Yeah, I get what you mean. I do have a question though."

Professor Xavier raised his eyebrow.

I honestly have no idea how he does that. The whole raising the eyebrow thing. If I raise my eyebrow in a look like that, it almost raises my entire eye area with it. Along half of the brow on the other side of my face. But he can just, like, raise his eyebrow. Just one. Without lifting up any of his other facial features. Kurt does it too. It drives me absolutely nuts sometimes. How do they do that!?

I just got really off track with that. Sorry. I'm rambling. Back to the conversation.

"Does it hurt at all to have a telapath in your head?" I asked. "I hope that's not a stupid question."

Professor Xavier smiled, shaking his head. "No question is a stupid, child. And to answer yours, it really does depend on the person. Some people don't feel it at all, some feel it a little bit, and others could get a headache from it."

"So, you're basically saying that we don't know if I'll be sensitive to it until we try it out," I said.

"Yes, essentially."

"How long does it take to do the telepath thing?"

"It can really depend on what you want to do," he replied. "We could time it, but we could also go as long as nessecary."

"I feel like I'm asking a lot of questions and talking you out," I said sheepishly.

This made Professor Xavier chuckle. "It's perfectly alright. Though I'm afraid I'm going to have to send Kurt down to his training session, so you are free to do as you like."

"Ok," I replied, on the brink of asking a new question.

I started to open my mouth to say something else, Mr. Logan stormed in. He definitely didn't look at all happy. He didn't even say anything. He just grabbed Kurt's arm and practically dragged Kurt out of the room.

The image of Mr. Logan pulling Kurt out of the room made me want to laugh. For a minute or two after they left, I just sat there biting my bottom lip. I turned to Professor X, hoping he was trying as hard as me to not laugh.

He was smiling and shaking his head, but didn't look like he was really laughing at all. When he realized I was looking at him, he gestured to the door. Before you could have said "gone", I was out the door and running to my room to keep myself from collapsing with laughter in the middle of the hallway.

oOo

I spent pretty much the entire afternoon in my room. Kurt had training until dinner, so I didn't really know what to do with myself. I didn't really feel like exploring, because everyone but Professor Xavier was training and I knew that I wasn't going to meet anyone new.

I tried reading a book that had appeared on my bedside table, but I couldn't get into it. Appearently, Kitty had been sweet enough to pull a box of books out of her closet and give me one of her old favorites to read. There was a sticky not on the front telling me where it came from, signed by Kitty.

It had a picture of a boy on a broomstick on the cover and he had some sort of lightning bolt shaped something on his forehead. There was also a unicorn in the backround and the boy had a cape on. The title was something about a sorcerer's stone or something like that.

I guess the book just wasn't interesting enough to keep my attention. I don't know why. After trying (and failing) to read, I ended up jut staring into space thinking about nothing in particular for the rest of the afternoon.

I must have fallen asleep at some point, because what seemed like a few minutes later, Kurt was shaking my shoulder to wake me up for dinner.

"Come on, sleepyhead," he chuckled. "Let's go get some dinner."

I glanced at the clock. It was about five thirty in the evening.

"I mast have been asleep for a while," I said, mostly to myself.

"Herr Professor said you were in your room all afternoon," Kurt replied. "Vhat exactly were you up to?"

I shrugged. "Not much of anything. I tried to read a book that Kitty left in my room for me. It didn't hold my attention for very long. I just kind of stared into space. And fell asleep, I guess. What exactly did you do?"

"I got to kick things. And make things blow up."

This line made me giggle for some reason. I guess it may have been the fact that the forst things he mentioned had either something to do with kicking the crap out of something or making it explode. Boys and explosions seem to mix really well. Until they blow up the house or something.

"I think you're a pyro-maniac at heart," I said, giggling a little. "It's kind of funny to me that the thing you were happiest about doing was blowing things up."

Kurt shrugged. "At least I didn't have to shout at anyone to do certain things. That's what Scott had to do."

"Who's Scott?" I asked before I could stop myself.

Seriously, dude. I've haven't even been here for a week yet. Do you expect me to know everyone's names by now? I'd have to have super memory or something to do that. You only told them all to me once. And you said them all very quickly so...

"I'll point him out to you at dinner," Kurt chuckled, shaking his head. "He's pretty easy to spot and remember. He always wears big red glasses."

As he mentioned the glasses, he made his eyes comically wide and circled his eyes with his fingers. The expression was probably supposed to make me laugh, but all I could do was roll my eyes at how ridiculous he looked doing it.

"He always sits next to Jean at meal times," he continued. "Jean has bright green eyes like a cat and super thick, bright red hair that she always keeps long. You can usually spot her by her hair. It's pretty easy to see."

"So her hair is like a big red lions' mane. Got it."

This comment made Kurt completely lose his composure. He almost collapsed to the floor, crying with laughter.

I'm really funny now. I guess.

"That's one way to think of it," he said, still chuckling and wiping tears of mirth from his cheeks. "That was a great comparison. I can't believe I never thought of that."

I shrugged. "So, are we gonna go eat dinner or are we gonna stand here and talk?"

"Ja, we're going to eat dinner," he replied, still chuckling.

oOo

We went to dinner in the dining room, and we were actually some of the first people there. Scott and Jean were there (and Kurt must've started thinking about my comparison of Jean's hair, because he started shaking with concealed laughter and earned himself some weird looks) but Professor Xavier greeted us with a smile. I got a few looks and some smiles (the brightest being from Kitty) when more people started coming in.

Everyone seemed really friendly, but there were definitely some friend groups and pairs that came in giggling and whispering about something or other. It sould be pretty obvious from my description that they were all groups of girls. I mean, come on, they were all giggling like typical teenage girls do. At least I'm pretty sure that's what they do.

There wasn't any sort of formalities before dinner (like a prayer or something , so as soon as everyone was at the table people just started passing the dishes of food around. The dishes had some sort of fancy metal thing on top of them that slid open, and when someone opened one of them, it made the entire room smell fantastic.

The room was filled with lively chatter and laughter throughout the meal, and as each person finished their food they wandered off and were left to their own devices. I was eating my food kind of slowly (on purpose, because I didn't really want to feel like everyone was watching me while I left) and Kurt had gotten into a rather interesting converstaion with Rogue about the influence of literature on the minds of young adults.

It was really an interesting conversation, but what really helped was the fact that because he was talking so much, Kurt was eating about as fast as I was. So that helped.

When we cleared out, Kurt had to go train for whatever he was training for, and I got a psy-message from Professor Xavier asking me to "please come to his office." I must've made a face, 'cause Kurt smiled at me. We parted ways in front of the elevator, him going to whatever tis training was for, and me going to Professor Xavier's office.

oOo

There's not much to say about when I finally went to the Professor's office. I came in and he gestured to a small sofa in one corner of the room. I sat on it and when he wheeled over, he simply (and very kindly, I assure you) told me to lie down and close my eyes.

I did so, and not but a brief moment later I felt his forehead against mine and his fingertips on my temples.

"Now," he whispered, "just relax. You will be all right."

oOo

 _I opened my eyes and looked around, but all I saw was mist. I was definitely was standing on something solid, but it wasn't identifiable. Professor Xavier appeared next to me, standing. I jumped, and he smiled kindly at me._

" _We're now on the astral plane," he said. "I can hear your thoughts if you project them, so there's no need to speak."_

" _I feel like there's dozens of teeny tiny ants crawling all over my brain," I thought._

 _He chuckled mentally. "That would be you feeling my telepathy," he said. "What would you like to show me first?"_

 _I "looked" at him confusedly._

" _I have to show it to you?" That was really confusing._

" _In a way, yes. Because your mind isn't open to me, I can't "see" anything."_

" _So, how do I "open" my mind?" This was getting more confusing by the second._

" _Usually, one has to display absolute trust for their mind to open up. It can take work, but it will happen eventually. Just start with the first thing you actually rembember, and we can work from there."_

 _I closed my eyes, thinking as hard as I could, and finally managed to project a smidge of a memory. It was from when I first met Kurt. This made Professor Xavier smile kindly at me. He seemed to understand that this was something I could easily show. He did end up eventually asking me about the dream though._

" _Kurt told me you had a nightmare at one point," he said. "Do you think you would be able to show it to me?"_

" _I can try," I said hesitantly. "It might take a bit to recall it."_

 _I do end up being able to recall the dream, and the Professor studied it very carefully. The more he studied the dream and the farther I let him delve into it, the weirder it made my head feel. At the point in the dream where I heard the laughter, my haed gave an extreamely painful pound and I lost all contact with Professor X._

oOo

I was able to open my eyes for a few seconds, seeing the fuzzy image of Porfessor Xavier leaning over me before succuming to the blackness.

OOo

 **A/N:** I'm really sorry this is so late. I've had a lot of stuff going on with school and life in general. I hope you enjoyed the chapter, but I'm going to warn you that I don't know when the next one will be up. Thanks for reading and feel free to leave a review (or 5).


	14. Ch 13: Who's Mr Sinister?

Chapter 13: Who's Mr. Sinister?

I woke up sometime later in the infirmary with Kurt sitting in a chair next to my bed with some sort of weird red and black costume on. He had his eyes closed and his chin resting on his folded hands. When I rolled over to look at the clock, he opened his eyes and raised one eyebrow in question.

Again, how the heck do people only raise one eyebrow? I don't understand!

Ok, I'll lay off with the eyebrow thing now.

The clock read about 1:00. Wait, Kurt sat up until one in the morning to make sure I was okay? That's some crazy dedication. Props to you dude.

For some perspective, I was knocked out around probably eight o'clock or eight thirty in the evening. That's a long time to be waiting for me to wake up.

"Where is everybody?" I whispered.

Kurt smiled, leaning forward slightly. "In bed. Except for Herr Logan, Professor X, Herr McCoy, and myself. And now you. How are you feeling?"

I rubbed my temple, hoping that would help the pounding in my skull subside. I felt like if I kept my eyes open for another second, they would be pushed right out of their sockets from the pounding.

"Honestly," I whispered, "pretty crappy. And I know we're the only people in here, but my head really hurts, so could you please whisper?"

"Of course. If it helps you feel better," he whispered, leaning back in the chair again and putting his feet up on the edge of the bed.

I rolled back onto my back and breathed deeply, pressing the heels of my hands into my closed eyes. Just that action and breathing deeply opened the floodgates of my mind. I had so many questions, and didn't know if I would ever get any answers at all for them.

Who's this Mr. Sinister? Am I actually his daughter? What does he want with me? Why can't I remember anything about my past? Was the Professor able to uncover anything when he did the mental probe? What knocked me out? Was me getting knocked out normal?

I literally had so many questions spinning in my head that I was starting to feel dizzy even though I was lying down. I heard footsteps and opened my eyes just in time to see Dr. McCoy come in. He quietly closed the door behind him, and strode forward reading what I assumed was some sort of medical related something on a clipboard.

"How are you feeling?" the doctor asked gently, wrapping something around my arm. He squeezed the armband tight and wrote something on his clipboard and started removing the band before I responded.

"Horrible," I whispered. "My head feels like it's going to explode especially when the lights are really bright."

I put my arm over my eyes in an attempt to block out the light as much as possible. I heard a faint chuckle and a quiet rustle of paper.

"Well, at least I can tell you that you headache is only caused by the Professor's telepathy," Dr. McCoy said quietly. "It should wear off within the next two to three hours as long as you rest and don't exert yourself too much."

"Good to know," I replied, rubbing my pounding temples. "Why would telepathy give me a headache this bad?"

"Certain people are more sensitive to telepathy than others, and when certain parts of the mind or certain memories are touched, the mind has the natural instinct of either making those things inaccessible or to shut down," he explained. "When the mind chooses to shut down, it usually knocks the person out and they wake up with a headache."

"So I essentially have a telepathy hangover form the mind probe," I replied, starting to rub at my eyes.

"I guess you could say that," chuckled Dr. McCoy chuckled. "I've never thought of it that way before."

"What exactly did he hit that knocked me out?" I asked, genuinely curious for about the millionth time.

"Well, from what the Professor told me, had to do with your powers and parentage," the doctor replied. "He told me that it was a repressed memory and it was rather difficult to see the details, and when he tried it knocked you out."

"What exactly did he see that knocked me out?" I asked, taking my hands off of my eyes and looking at Dr. McCoy.

He loosed a breath and looked at Kurt, almost as if he was looking for reassuance.

"He said he caught a glimpse of Mr. Sinister, but it was mostly lights and what seemed to be a hospital room," he replied, obviously uncomfortable.

"Well, this definitely sounds like a mystery that needs to be solved," I replied sarcastically. "Maybe we'll figure it out, but why the heck did this guy choose such a stupid sounding name? Even Nightcrawler sounds cooler."

This earned a snort of laughter from Kurt, whose eyes were twinkling with humor at my comment and had a hand over a smile that he was trying too hard to hide.

"I don't know there he got the tacky name from," Dr. McCoy replied cracking a small smile. "But I can tell you that a nap would be a good idea on your part. We'll get this sorted out, but we have to wait awhile because everyone is still in bed."

I groaned, wiping my hands across my face for dramatic effect.

"Even if I have to wait, can Kurt and me at least walk around?" I asked. "I have a lot more energy than I need and I won't be able to sleep."

"You may walk around, but I would prefer for you to say in the lower levels," the doctor chuckled.

Before he could say anything else, I was up and out the door. I dashed from one end of the hall to the other before slowing to a walk so I could actually think. Kurt eventually joined me, just walking with me and letting me think.

 _I wonder how I'm related to this Sinister guy,_ I thought. _This whole thing is crazy. I don't even remember having parents, much less a parent that looks like him. I'll have to ask the Professor about it. Maybe Kurt would know something…._

"Penny for your thoughts?" Kurt asked.

I shook my head. "Do you happen to know anything about Sinister?"

"He's pretty well known for being a genetic scientist," he replied. "I know he helped Weapon X clone Wolverine, and he uses mutants in a lot of his experiments. I can't really tell you anything else. I would if I could."

I counted things off on my fingers as I repeated them back to Kurt. "So he's a scientist, makes clones, tends to torture mutants, and really likes genetics. Do you think any of the adults know anything else?"

"I'm sure the adults know something, but I'm not sure if they'd be willing to tell us anything," Kurt replied, shaking his head. "They might be willing to tell you something, but I don't think they would tell me anything."

"But I really trust you, so it isn't logical to do that because if I hear anything I tell you," I said, running my hands through my hair in frustration.

Kurt reached, stopping our walk, and gently grasped my wrists and pulled them away from my hair. "We'll figure something out. I'm sure if they know you tell me they won't care because they know you trust me."

I took a deep breath, trying to swallow the pounding heartbeat in my throat and calm down.

 _What's gonna happen to everyone else if something happens to me because of this? The last thing I want to do is put them in danger. They already probably go through enough._

My thoughts went haywire, and that freaked me out even more. I started to shake a little, biting my lip and trying to not cry. Kurt stopped walking and pulled me into a hug. He didn't say anything. He didn't really have to, seeing as I could almost feel his emotions in the hug.

"Why do you stay with me through all of this?" I whispered through my chattering teeth. "Everything that happens to me is completely crazy. I'm not even sure who I am."

"I stick with you because if I were to be in your place, I would want to have somone by my side," Kurt whispered. "I can't even begin to imagine what it's like to not know who you are or where you came from. I just want to be here for you if you need someone because I know what its like to be alone. I don't want you to have to go through that."

I hugged him tighter, my heart warming as my panic attack subsided.

 _I don't know what I did to deserve someone loke Kurt to be my pillar. Maybe, just maybe, I'll get through this. I know he'll be with me the whole way._

oOo

 **AN:** I was reading the wonderful storytelling of the great Sir Brandon Sanderson while writing this. The relationship aspects in his book The Hero of Ages have really helped me write the relationship of Kurt and She-Who-Shall-Later-Be-Named (currently known as Lost Girl).

I hope you guys all liked this one! It was a journey to write, and I actually re-wrote a couple of parts a few times. It took me a bit to figure out how I wanted things worded. True writer struggles. :)


	15. Ch 14: Okay Then

Chapter 14: Okay Then

After walking a few more laps back and forth in the comfortable silence that came after I calmed down from my panic attack, I went to bed after making sure Kurt didn't get hurt in the elevator.In case you're wondering, I insisted that Beast go on the elevator with him. After saying no two or three times, he conceded to give me enough peace of mind to sleep.

Go ahead and say it.

I'm a weirdo that hates elevators.

I don't know why, but elevators just make me nervous. I'm just constantly scared that someone is going to lose a limb at some point. In order for me to not freak out there has to be at least tow people in said elevator whenever someone uses it. I know I'm weird for this, but I don't care.

Despite the fact that I made Dr. McCoy take Kurt up the elevator, Kurt was kind enough to send my current read down with the kind doctor. I'm still working through the series that Kitty looped me into reading when I first arrived.

News flash: Those dementor things scare the absolute crap out of me in every way possible. I hate them so much and want them to disappear forever. I also hope Harry finds a way to kill them. If that's even possible to do in the Wizarding world.

In case you haven't noticed, I'm a little obsessed with Harry Potter right now. Moving on...

Dr. McCoy wanted me to stay in the med bay for the rest of the night, so he left me to my own devices and went back to bed. I ended up reading a couple chapters of my book before falling asleep with it and forgetting to turn the lights off (oops, my bad). I also loved the scene with the patronus. It was amazing.

I actually fell asleep not long after that. I was shocked when I woke up around breakfast time in what I thought was the next day to find out that I had slept for an entire day. The sensation of time loss after being told I had been asleep for an entire day was an interesting experience, to say the least.

In order to avoid the breakfast crowd I wandered upstairs to talk to Professor X. Surprisingly, he was more than willing to talk for a while.

I plunked down in the chair across from him before getting right to the point.

"What exactly did you see that knocked me out?"

The Professor chuckled. "Straight to the point. Logan would like that. Well, to answer your question, I happened to see your father. I'm sure you have been told at this point who he is. Other than that, I saw mostly things like surgery tables and people hidden in shadows. I don't know what else has happened that made you lose your memory, but the mind is fragile and attempting to go any further into those memories without causing damage."

"How would trying to access old memories damage my brain?"

I was genuinely confused as to how this worked. I'd never done anything like this with a telepath before.

The Professor tented his fingers like he always did when he was thinking. "I really would like to attempt to give you more to go on, but there are some things that the mind simply has to figure out for itself. You will connect the pieces eventually, but for now we have to go on what we have. I'm sorry."

He looked at me kindly over his hands, waiting for me to say something (I'm assuming). At that point, I felt defeated. I could only remember being rescued, everything after being rescued, and cause memories of being experimented on. How was I supposed to just connect the pieces? I hardly knew who I even was.

"I guess I'll do my best on my own then," I said, hearing my own disappointment in my voice.

I left the room, heading for my own. The Professor didn't say anything as I left, but I could feel him in my head slightly, probably trying to project hope.

He seemed to have an abundance of hope. It was really amazing how hopeful and optimistic he could be about pretty much anything.

I ended up spending the afternoon in my room researching Mr. Sinister.

Here's what I was able to find out: He is an accomplished genetic scientist, he likes to research specifically mutants, and when he runs any sort of genetic test he uses mutants as test subjects. He has also wona crap ton of awards for his researh on mtant genetics and how the X-gene works.

Boy am I ever glad the Professor gave me a computer.

I couldn't find very much else about the guy and nothing ever mentioned him having a family of any sort, but I did find out that he had a giant lab building in Manhattan.

The thing that shocked me the most about the location of the building was that it's LITERALLY a block away from the Baxter Building. I truly wonder if the Fantastic Four are aware of this guy's existance.

I dug a bit deeper and was actually able to find out that his name is actually Nathaniel Essex. I also was able to find an absolute gem of a picture of him and Reed Richards accepting an award for something. At the same time and on the same stage.

I guess the Fantastic Four must know that he exists then.

I wrote down the address for the lab building and put it in my pocket so I wouldnt lose it.

Just as I was finishing up my research, Kurt poked his head in. He looked like he either had a crazy idea or he was going to say something funny.

"What have you been up to?" he asked with an impish grin.

He really looked like he wanted to pull somethig crazy.

"Um, nothing much. Just a little bit o research to see if something will jog my memory," I replied. "You certainly look like you want to do something impish."

"Have you ever pulled a prank?" he asked, his impish grin getting bigger by the second.

I shook my head. "No, I've never pulled a prank, but I'd be willing to as long as no one got hurt. What do you have in mind?"

"Nothing that would hurt anyone. At least not the person we're pulling it on," Kurt answered, pulling ke out the door and down the stairs.

I was a little bit confused as to what he wanted to do so I followed him into the kitchen. There was a blond kid waiting for us in the kitchen that looked just as impish as Kurt.

Kurt gestured back and forth as he spoke. "Bobby, Lost Girl. Lost Girl, Bobby," he said as introduction.

"What are we gonna do?" Bobby asked, bouncing on the balls of his feet with nervous excitement.

Kurt explained what we were supposed to do, telling me to help Bobby put ice on the floor. Once we had done that, Kurt teleported upstairs to raise to alarm. Some more people came in, and I'm guessing they just wanted to see the outcome of the prank. Kurt reappeared with a grin plastered across his face just as we started to hear pounding on the foyer stairs and shouting.

Wolverine dashed in the kitchen, shouting and with fully extended claws ready to defend against whatever Kurt told him was there. He dashed through the kitchen door only to have his feet fly out from under him and shoot across the floor into the wall. He tried grabbing the counter but ended up just cutting right through the counter and the cabinet with his claws. The entire room burst into gales of uproarious laughter.

Wolverine picked himself up off the floor with a growl directed at Bobby and Kurt.

"Charles' office. Now," he growled, looking really intimidating.

Kurt and Bobby ducked their heads a little bit, still grinning a little as they left the room to the sound of everyone's fading laughter. I followed, but only because I wasn't sure what to do.

Okay then. I guess we're in trouble.

oOo

A/N: To be honest, the thing about elevators is true to me. I'm actually willing to inconvenience people to use stairs if I can. Any of my family members can attest to that.

I also wrote most of this when I should have been writing a paper for school. #noregrets It actually ended up helping me concentrate. It also helped my paper writing to be more cohesive. Fingers crossed that I get a good grade on that history paper.


	16. Ch 15: On the Subject of Parents

Ch. 15: On the Subject of Parents

After getting quite the telling off from the Professor and a very humiliated Wolverine, Kurt and Bobby were given extra chores for the next week. Fortunately the whole thing went down in Wolverine's office, so I was able to stick around while the other people left.

Once everyone else left, he noticed me standing by the closed door and waved me over to one of the chairs in front of his desk. once I got situated, he gave me a funky look.

"Whatcha need, kid?" he asked, sull with the funky look on his face. "No kid that was here before you had the guts to approach me twice in their first week."

"The Professor hinted that you have trouble with your memory like I do," I replied. "I was wondering if you had any advice on how to... Go about getting it back... I guess."

I looked down at my lap, starting to feel nervous.

 _Would he be wiiling to help me? Is he going to shrug me off and not care about waht happens to me?_

Wolverine shifted in his chair, sighing.

"Look kid, I'm still working that shit out as much as you are," he answered with another sigh. "I've been trying to get my memories back for a years. The only advice I could give is to research some of what you know and follow any leads you're able to find. If I could help you more I would. I'm sorry."

My heart sank. I saw that answer coming, but even so it was disappointing to hear. I looked back up at him.

"Did the Professor ever tell you the whole "I csn only do so much because the mind is fragile" thing?" I asked quietly, sinking into my chair.

"Yep, he's told me that more times than I can count, but he is right."

I looked back up at him, startled. _Professor Xavier is right?_ I was completely lost for words.

"Charles is right because even something small like the background of where you were at the time or what a person looks like help your brain connect the pieces. It's happened to me more times than I can count. Like I said, just start with what you have and what you find and your brain will fill in the rest. If you feel like you ever need my help, feel free to ask. I'll always be here, but some of it you have to do yourself. Understand?"

I looked into Wolverine's eyes. I could tell he truly and genuinely wanted to help. I offered him a small smile.

"Thank you," I whispered. "I'll remember to ask for help when I need it."

He nodded, pinching the bridge of his nose.

"I got paperwork to do kid. You mind using to find someone else to bother for a while?"

I slipped out of his office closing the door and hearing the faint rustle of paper. I wandered aimlessly around the house for a bit, not really knowing what to do with myself. I ended up seeking out Kurt who happened to be outside doing pool maintenance. I waited for him to finish up and put everything away (seeing as it was part of his punishment for that absolutely hilarious prank).

He noticed me sitting on one of the umbrella chairs by the pool am. came over to talk when he was finished.

"What's up?" he asked, swinging his legs onto the chair and sitting cross-legged in front of me.

"Maybe this makes you awkward, but is it okay if I ask you about your parents?" I asked. I waited a beat for him to answer.

"My parentage is a bit complicated like yours, although I know who my mother is more than who my father is," he replied. "We've been trying to find my father for years, but without success. My mother wants nothing to do with him anymore so she refuses to even tell us his name."

"Who's your mother?" I asked, my interest piqued. "Do you think she knows anything about Sinister?"

Kurt made a sound somewhere between a laugh and a snort. I'll call it a lort. He lorted. I could probably find a better word for that but I'm too lazy.

"Mystique wouldn't want to help us, I know that much," he replied. "She only ever helps the anyone in this house when it help her further her own agenda. She also probably also only knows about as much as we do at this point."

So we're somewhat in the same boat with our parents. Believer it or not, knowing that is actually more comforting than Kurt even knows.

"Do you think we could find something about your father if we go to see Sinister?" I asked, hoping he would agree.

Kurt shook his head. "I honestly don't think Sinister would know anything about my father. After he found out Mystique was pregnant with me, he just up and disappeared. Not even she knows what happened to him. I grew up with foster parents that ran a family owned circus until I was about nine and was the trapeze artist in their circus. When my foster parents decided to disband the circus, we settled down for a couple of years on a small farm. When one of the neighbor children found out I was a mutant, we picked up and moved somewhere else within about a month. The house we moved into then is actually the same house that we were in when my mom discovered this place." Kurt gestured towards the house. "My foster parents thought sending me here was a really good idea because I needed to finish school, but they also thought being around fellow mutants would be good for me. I still go home for the holidays and sometimes for my birthday my foster parents come for a visit, but this place is pretty much my home. I do hope I find out who my real father is someday, but I'm pretty happy with where I am now."

My heart sank. Not out of selfishness, but because Kurt seemed like such a genuinely sweet guy. Hearing what I just heard about his parents almost snapped my heartstrings. It must have sucked to grow up not knowing your parents at all and then as a teenager to find out pretty much out of the blue that you had been fighting your own mother since you came to America would suck. I could really relate to not knowing who one of your parents was at all, but hearing him talk about his parents and foster parents made me realize I didn't know who my mother was either.

Kurt looked ready to say something else, but made a weird face instead and stood up. He turned for the door of the house, in a way that made it look like someone had shouted for him out the back door.

"I got a psychic call from the Professor," he called over his shoulder. He turned around and walked backwards a few steps. "Hope you're able to figure out the whole thing with your parents! I'll see you in a while! Good luck!"

Just as he shouted his good wishes, he tripped and fell comedically on the steps outside the before rubbing himself off and teleporting away.

I guess it's time to find Sinister and find out who I am.


	17. Ch 16: Meeting Sinister

Ch. 16: Meeting Sinister

I got up and followed Kurt into the house after a minute or two. On the way up to my room I heard a roaring sound that sounded to me like an airplane or jet. Wow. This school has a private plane of some kind? That's nuts.

I packed up all of my stuff, writing down the address and making sure I had everything that I needed. Despite the fact it was pretty warm outside, I grabbed a hoodie that Kitty had given me that had a big hood to put on once I got off of the grounds. I didn't think that anyone would really like seeing a person covered in literal scales.

I climbed on to the nearest branch of the tree outside my window before closing it behind me and climbing down. I checked for cameras and other people before dashing into the trees. I climbed over the wall without any problems, but I did have to time it so the security cameras wouldn't see me.

Even though I really like the school, once I was over the wall and on my own it almost felt like a weight was lifted off my shoulders. There's really no other way I can explain it. It just felt like I was more free and that I could take on the world if I tried. I made my way out of the woods to the road and followed it all the way to town. I found the bus station pretty quickly (it was actually one of the first places I was able to see from the first intersection I came to after leaving the woods) and had a... Um, a bit of a fiasco buying a ticket. It was pretty dramatic.

Once I procured my ticket, I got on a bus to Manhattan. The bus ride was pretty uneventful. I sat and read one of the books Kitty gave to me all the way there. I also was able to gather that Harry and Ron would get _absolutely nowhere_ without Hermionie. They can be real idiots sometimes. I'm only in book two and I figured that out.

I went to the nearest convenience store to ask for directions to my fathers' building, but the people I asked for directions from were pretty rude. I walked out of the store feeling pretty bad about how rude the guys behind the counter were when a brown haired guy on a pizza delivery bike-moped type thing came up to me.

"Hey, you look pretty down. Are you okay?" he asked. He looked pretty concerned.

I sighed. "I'm trying to find this building, but everyone I've asked directions from has been pretty nasty to me. Can you help me out?"

The guy took the paper from me, took one look at it and made a weird face. "I've heard some not so great things about the people that work in this place. But if this is where you want to go, I'd be glad to take you. I just got off of work. Climb on I'll give you a ride. It's not far from here. And for future reference, I work here as the delivery guy and the owner is pretty nasty to me too."

I practically melted with relief as I climbed on the back of his "bike". "Thank you so much. Is there anything I can do to repay you?"

He chuckled a little bit. "Nah, don't worry about it. Just knowing I was able to help someone out is enough repayment for me. Just take care of yourself."

He pulled off into traffic, a clear sign we couldn't talk anymore. New York traffic is pretty loud, so even though we had been standing on the sidewalk we had to shout to hear each other. I looped my arms around his waist and rested my forehead against his back to make sure I didn't fall off.

After a couple minutes of slow moving, he pulled off into a parking lot between a really tall black and grey building and a strip of clothing stores and fast food chains. He parked his bike, climbing off after me.

"So, What's your name?" the boy asked, looking a little bit awkward.

"That's actually what I'm here to figure out," I replied. "I found out my dad works in this building and came to see him to see if he remembers anything about me. I never thought to ask what your name is. I go by Lost Girl. What's yours?"

The boy smiled at me, his whole face lighting up and holding out his hand for me to shake. "I'm Peter Parker. Good luck talking to your dad. Maybe once you find out what your name is we'll meet again," he said, getting back on his bike.

"Maybe," I said turning for the door of the building, reading the silver letters emblazoned over it. I heard the bike go on behind me with one last shout of "Good luck!" before the sound of Peter's bike disappeared into the hustle and bustle of the city traffic. I took a deep breath, letting it out slowly.

Well, here goes nothing.

oOo

I pushed through the rotating door with another deep breath. The hall that greeted me was polished marble and dark wood with a simple but large light fixture hanging over it all. The room smelled like a comination of scented candles and evergreen trees. The first thing you see upon entering is a long mahogany desk sitting between two sides of one of those staircases that looks like a circle got cut in half. I approached the front desk doing my best to not let my footsteps echo in the quiet room.

"Excuse me, I'm looking for a Mr. Essex," I said quietly upon approaching the front desk.

The man sitting behind the desk gave me an appraising look. "What would bring a young lady like you to a place like this looking for Mr. Essex?" the man asked.

"I had a question about my mother," I replied quietly. For some reason I felt the need to really lower my voice, so I kept speaking in a quieter tone than normal. "And it's a question that only Mr. Essex can answer."

The man gave me another appraising look. "Wait her for a few moments please," he replied, getting up from his chair.

I stood in front of the desk listening to the sound of the man's footsteps fading as he went up the stairs. He was gone for a couple of minutes at most before I heard him coming back down the stairs. When I heard him coming back, my heart started racing and my palms got sweaty from anxiety.

 _Is Sinister not going to see me? Was this a horrible idea after all?_

The man from the front desk came back down the stairs and the suspense just about killed me. All he did was come back down the stairs and sit behind his desk again. He didn't even so much as look at me or tell me anything. I was about to ask if I was supposed to leave but a deep voice came from the hall at the top of the stairs, echoing so much that I could tell it was from a fair distance away.

"Well well well," said the voice. It was deep and seemed to resonate through the room even though it was just an echo. "My daughter has finally come to see me. Come up the stairs child, and I'll show you everything you want to know."

I looked at the desk clerk expecting him to say something, but all he did was nod towards the stairs and go back to what he was doing.

"Come child, there's no need to be afraid," said the voice again.

I bit the bullet and went up the stairs, following where I thought the voice was coming from. Upon entering the hallway, however, there was a tall man in a black business suit waiting for me. He was about as tall as one of the people I saw at the school that Kurt pointed out, but he was built more like Kurt in the way that he was slender but had quite a bit of muscle. The thing I thought was his most defining attribute was the fact that he had what seemed to be some sort of red diamond shaped gem in his forehead.

I froze at the top of the stairs, bits of black creeping into my vision. His voice was the same one I heard in my dream. Literally exactly the same. And I vividly remembered at that moment that I saw a flash of red right before I woke up that was the same shape as the gem in his forehead p. My hands started to shake and my stomach twisted into a giant knot like I was going to vomit.

 _This guy is connected to me somehow. I have to figure it out. I have to know who I truly am. Even if I have to discover who I am, I at least want to know what my name is._

"If you're truly my father," I whispered, trying my best to speak around the huge lump that formed in my throat, "then you have to know what my name is."

The man smiled, looking more evil than I can even imagine Severus Snape acting towards Harry Potter. "Of course, child," he replied in an overly calm and smooth voice. "Your name is Kaylin May Essex. It always has been and always will be as it was given to you at your birth. Now come. I shall give you a tour, unless you would prefer to sit in my office and ask questions."

I followed when he turned around, the lump of anxiety in my throat disappearing as we walked. I was still on edge because I didn't trust the guy, but at least it was easier to ask questions after the initial meeting. I hoped I didn't look as nervous and on edge as I felt, seeing as Sinister had his hands folded behind his back and a very relaxed posture.

We walked down a long hallway full of offices and down a spiraling staircase to a long hallway that looks like how I imagine the Department of Mysteries looking. We walked by a bunch of cells (like actual cells that could be in a jail) to the door at the end of the hall. It opened with a squeal, revealing what looked like a cross between a hospital room and a science lab.

I took one look at that room and the memories came back in a tidal wave.


	18. Ch 17: Memories

Chapter 17: Memories

 _I was strapped to the table, my strength waning the more I struggled against the restraints. A tall figure loomed over me, chuckling evilly in a way that made my blood boil._

" _You shall be the finest product of any experiment I've ever done, Kaylin," he said proudly. "You'll be the most powerful mutant on the planet when I'm done with you, daughter."_

" _Don't you have any heart?" I cried, still struggling against the table. "Torturing your own daughter for no other purpose than to try to make her more powerful? What's the point? Wouldn't you rather just have your daughter be a normal child that you can love?"_

" _Ah, but it never hurt anything to have a better daughter, a more powerful one," he replied._

 _My heart shattered. He wanted me to be more powerful instead of just being myself. He would rather just have an extremely powerful mutant under his roof than just a girl that remembers the lyrics to every song she hears._

 _He would rather have a powerful being than his sweet tempered, lively little Gypsy whose light of love blinded everyone._

 _He would rather have me be able to do anything with my powers than laugh when I correct him for getting a Dio lyric wrong._

 _I started to cry, feeling the gas making me lightheaded. Da didn't want me. He wanted a merciless machine that could do anything he wanted. He wanted me for a tool that he could use against his enemies instead of a lively girl that could bring him joy when he was in the pits of despair._

" _You don't love me anymore," I choked, tears streaming down the sides of my face. "You don't care what happens to me as long as I do what you say. You want an empty shell. Why did you even bother having a daughter if your only intention is to torture her?"_

 _My breathing came in chest heaving sobs. I couldn't do anything but cry. All I could feel was the pain from a broken heart, the pain that comes when you realize that the one person you look up to most in the world only wants the empty shell of you to give orders to._

 _Despite the tears and the emotional pain, I started to fall asleep. The last thing I remembered from was the single diamond shaped gem in my father's forehead, gleaming bright red like a beacon in the dark room before everything went black._

oOo

I opened my eyes. My face felt cold like I had been crying. The memories of my dream that, ironically, wasn't a dream came crashing back. I closed my eyes, despite the fact that closing my eyes really wasn't going to do anything. Instead of making me cry, however, I started to shake with pure rage.

 _How and why could anyone possibly bear to do that to their own daughter?_ I thought. _I have to find a way to make him stop doing things like what he did to me. Who knows how many other children he's tortured!_

The more I thought about it the more angry I became.

 _What if Sinister somehow got his hands on Kurt and everyone else at the Institute? He'd probably just mercilessly torture them. They can't go through that. They never did anything that was purposely unkind. All I've ever seen them do is show kindness, love, and hospitality to those around them._

The very thought of Sinister doing something to Kurt and his friends made me sick to my stomach. All they had done since I first came to the school was show me kindness. My thoughts were cut off by the sudden appearance of a bright light from right above me.

"Ah, the young lady is awake at last," said Sinister. "There are some things I wish to know."

I squinted at him through the darkness outside my circle of light. My eyes were slowly adjusting to the brightness. His voice was so infuriatingly calm, all it did was make me angrier. Fortunately, I had enough sense in my head to keep my mouth clamped shut despite my anger.

"How long did it take you to get here?" I was now used to the light and could see his figure standing by my feet.

I kept my mouth stubbornly shut.

"Where is the school that houses the X-Men?" he asked.

He slowly walked to my side, dragging his nails across the metal table as he went. It made a noise that made me want to cringe. But I still kept my mouth shut. Sinister leaned over me from the end of the table my head was on. He was so close to my face that I could smell the faint scent of mint on his breath.

I guess even super villains use minty toothpaste and breath mints. Who knew?

"If you don't tell me where they are," Sinister whispered, "I'll do everything in my power to find them. And when I do, I'll use them. Just like I used you. They won't have names, they'll only have numbers. And they'll be some of the best test subjects I've ever had."

As he said the last sentence, he dragged his nails infuriatingly slowly across the sides of my face. He didn't do it hard enough to cause damage, but definitely hard enough for me to feel it. His threats still didn't get the location of the school out of me, but it made me snap.

"If you find them and hurt them, I swear that I'll kick your ass," I growled through clenched teeth.

Sinister whirled back around putting his face so close to mine our noses almost touched.

"You, girl, only have one ability," Sinister snarled. "There is no possible way in heaven or earth you could possibly best me. Not without help."

"Who says she doesn't have help?" came a somewhat familiar voice out of the darkness.

The sound of sliding metal and footsteps came from the darkness surrounding the table. I saw an evil grin slowly spread across Sinister's face.

"Wolverine, how lovely that you could join us."


	19. Ch 18: What Now?

Chapter 18: What Now?

Wolverine lunged at the table, his claws catching the light. I squeezed my eyes shut, hoping that he was lunging at Sinister and not trying to stab me. I heard the sound of metal scraping on metal. The feeling of the bonds holing me to the table disappeared.

Knowing I had been released, I rolled onto the floor and under the table, still with my eyes shut. I didn't open them until I whirled around having felt someone touch me on the shoulder. I automatically swung my arm out, my eyes flying open in surprise when the person caught my wrist.

I turned around, my heart in my throat. Kitty was sitting behind me with a small smile and holding firmly onto my wrist. She puts a finger to her lips to tell me to be quiet. I nodded in understanding.

"Hold your breath," she whispered.

It was a miracle I was able to hear her over the noise that Wolverine was making fighting off Sinister. I obediently held my breath, starting to feel a tingling sensation in my legs. The feeling got more intense just as I realized we were going _through the floor_.

Kitty, that is a wicked cool power you have there.

We feel through the floor landing in the hall underneath. Kurt and a metal skinned guy were able to sort of catch us as we feel through the ceiling. Kurt nodded to the metal guy who caught Kitty. I'm assuming it was some sort of signal because they guy nodded back before setting Kitty carefully on the ground and disappearing down the hall to who knows where.

I pushed away from Kurt, frustration building in my chest. "Why did you guys follow me? I have powers. I can defend myself."

"Lost Girl-" Kurt started.

"My name is Kaylin," I cut him off.

He shut his mouth, his lips turning into a thin line.

"I'm trying to figure out who I am. If you guys follow me everywhere being heroes, I'm not going to figure anything out. All I want is to remember my past and I thought coming here might help me remember something. That's all I want. I'm just not sure if you'll ever understand that."

Kurt sighed, looking up at the ceiling. "Kaylin, I'll fully support you in trying to remember anything you've forgotten, but the last thing I want you to do is come back here. I'm sure you've figured out by now that Sinister is extremely dangerous."

I opened my mouth to say something, but Kitty made a slashing motion across her throat. I shut my mouth waiting for Kurt to finish.

"It's not that we're trying to be heroes where you're concerned. We've been planning on coming here for months to liberate all of his test subjects. He keeps innocent mutants – innocent people – locked up in cages to torture them. You just happened to be the one strapped onto the table when we got here."

"Yeah, we've, like, already gotten everyone else out. We came for you last because we thought being here would trigger memories," Kitty chimed in. "We wanted to wait as long as possible before he did something to you. It was Wolverine's idea."

"Please don't be angry with us," Kurt said. "If you want to be mad at someone here, be mad at Wolverine. This was all his idea in the first place. We didn't even realize you had left the mansion until we got here."

"Ok, I see your point," I replied with a sigh. I rubbed the back of my neck, feeling really guilty having been mad at them. "Well, now that you've gotten me out, what are we supposed to do?"

"Go back to the jet," replied Kitty cheerfully.

Yikes girl. You could probably see literal hell and still be cheerful and bouncing on your toes about something. Please teach me this skill. I'm your willing apprentice. Or Padawan.

That made me sound really nerdy, didn't it?

Kurt teleported us to the jet, making me a little disoriented for a couple of seconds. For those of you that have never bee teleported before, it feels like your entire body is being squeezed in a too tight corset for a couple seconds. After the all over tightness feeling goes away, you feel like your stomach has been left behind. It's one of the most bizarre things I've ever felt.

We landed at the bottom of the jet ramp. Kurt gave me a nudge towards the ramp, signaling me to get on the jet. I climbed up the ramp expecting someone to be there to scold me, but the jet was empty except for Kurt, Kitty, and me.

I plopped down in one of the chairs feeling extremely guilty. This whole thing probably would've been so much easier for Kurt's team to handle if I hadn't run off without telling them where I was going or that I was even leaving.

I was so busy feeling sorry for myself that I didn't notice everyone else slowly trickle onto the jet. No one really tried to talk to me, which is probably why I didn't notice anyone until Wolverine came aboard as we were taking off.

"What the hell were you thinking?" he demanded, standing in front of me with his arms crossed over his chest.

I didn't respond, knowing that he would be less happy to listen to me right now than when we get back to the house.

"Well?"

I shrugged, really not wanting to make him angry. However, at this point, I could feel the eyes of the other kids on me. I knew that unless he either left me alone or I responded that something dramatic was probably going to happen.

"Anything you want to tell me, kid?"

"I really…. I don't know if I really want to talk about it with a ton of people around," I replied.

Wolverine sighed, finally choosing to let me win. "Fine, but we're talking to Charles about this when we get back."

I buried my head in my knees, hoping that something good was going to come out of this entire experience.


	20. Ch 19: What Was I Supposed To Do?

Chapter 19: What Was I Supposed To Do?

When we got back to the mansion Wolverine wordlessly grabbed my arm. He pulled me down the jet's ramp and through the hangar to the elevator. He pulled me in, pressing one of the buttons before crossing his arms and leaning against the back railing.

I didn't want to make him angrier than he probably already was, so I just kept quiet until the elevator dinged. For some reason, I was way more scared of the Professor punishing me than I was of anything Wolverine could do. Maybe it was because I didn't know Wolverine, but I'm not sure.

He pulled me out of the elevator by my arm, but once we ere in the hallway I dug my heels into the floor.

"You didn't resist me gettin' up here. What's the problem?" Wolverine demanded.

"Is Professor Xavier going to be mad at me?" I asked. "All I wanted was….."

"To figure out who your old man was. Yeah, I know that," Wolverine retorted, still gripping my arm. "If anything, he'll be more understanding than me, kid. Come on, we don't have all night to do this."

I gulped, relenting. He loosened his grip a bit, knocking on the Professor's office door. There was a faint call from the Professor to enter. Wolverine pushed me slightly into one of the chairs in front of the desk.

"She ran away," he said by way of explaination. "We found her in Sinister's base. He was probably gonna experiment on her."

"All I wanted was to remember where I came from," I cut in. "I was trying to jog my memory because I figured after the telepathic probe I needed to do it myself."

The Professor tented his fingers with a thoughtful expression. "Were you able to learn anything?" he asked.

"I know that my birth name is Kaylin," I replied.

"Well Kaylin, I'm going to let you off with a warning this time," he said, rolling out from behind his desk. "If you want to do this again in the future, the only thing I ask of you is that someone goes with you. Also be sure that an adult knows that you're leaving. Am I understood?"

"Yeah, I get it," I nodded. Relief flooded through me.

"What else were you able to find out while you were there?" the Professor asked, now next to me.

"Sinister has a huge ego," I replied. "He also really doesn't like the X-Men very much."

This earned a snort of laughter from Wolverine. "Yeah, as many times as we've beaten his ass and rescued his test subjects, he would hate our guts."

"Logan, please watch your language," the Professor chided. "You're supposed to be a role model."

Wolverine grunted, crossing his arms. "It's not just that, Charles. You're just gonna let her off with a warning? If this was one of the other kids, you'd be a lot harsher."

"I also know the other children better than I know Kaylin," the Professor said, not looking the least bit happy that Wolverine was challenging him. "Once I get to know her better, maybe I will give her a harsher punishment as I see fit. But I also seem to recall that every time I get after you for investigating your past that you get angry. Why should I punish young Kaylin for something she has no control over?"

Wolverine sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. "All right, I see your point," he conceded. "I'm going to make sure the other kids aren't destroying the house."

Wolverine left, leaving me with the Professor. I was feeling pretty awkward because I'd never seen adults have a face off before. Professor Xavier tented his fingers again, closing his eyes before speaking again.

"What were you able to discover while you were in you fathers' base?" he asked quietly, breaking the tension a little bit.

I pulled my knees up to my chest, resting my chin on top of them to help me relax. "I found out that he treated me like a normal daughter until I got my powers. After that, he started….. Torturing me? I don't know exactly what all he did, but it definitely hurt because I remember being in a lot of pain."

Xavier nodded. "Do you remember anything else?"

I dug into the newly revealed memories for a couple minutes before settling on something. "I remember a specific song. I don't know what band it is, but I remember the words and the melody. Maybe that could be a lead."

Xavier looked at me curiously. "Do you think the words could lead to something?"

I shrugged. "I don't know, but maybe Kurt knows it. He really likes music."

"Then I suggest asking Kurt and working from there," Professor Xavier replied in a tone that said he was ready to be finished.

"Can I go ask him now?" I asked.

"You may," he replied, starting to flip through some of the papers on his desk.

I dashed out the door to freedom, heading towards Kurt's room. I had such high hopes of him knowing the song that I felt like my heart was going to beat right out of my chest. I knocked on Kurt's door, bouncing on my toes from excitement. He opened it but I asked him my question before he could even ask me what I needed.

"I remembered this song that I knew somehow," I blurted. "I have no idea what it is. Would you know it if you'd heard it before?"

Kurt crossed his arms, leaning against the doorframe with a small smile on his lips. "Well, could I hear a snippet? I won't be able to place it without hearing a little."

I whistled a snippet of the song, hoping he knew it. Thankfully for my poor heart, his face lit up in recognition.

"Close the door behind you, I'm not sure how many people will like hearing this," Kurt said, turning to his shelf of Cds. I closed the door as he pulled one out and opened it to put in the stereo. I froze in the middle of the floor as the familiar drumbeat filled the room, signaling the beginning of the song.

When the solo started, it really took me on a trip down memory lane. The memories came clear as day, making my heart hurt.


	21. Ch 20: Over the Hills and Far Away

Chapter 20: Over the Hills and Far Away

" _Kaylin, honey, why don't you try to play it on the piano instead of your violin?" asked Mom, standing in the kitchen doorway with a towel and a half dry dish in her hand._

" _But I like my violin," I replied, continuing to play along with the Nightwish coming from the speakers in the kitchen._

 _Mom let out a musical laugh. "If you won't, then I will."_

 _She put the dish and the towel away before coming out to the piano in time to join me in singing and playing the chorus for our favorite classic Nightwish tune._

" _Over the hills and far away,  
She prays he will return one day.  
As sure as the rivers reach the seas,  
Back in his arms she swears she'll be."_

 _We played our hearts out, only dashing in the kitchen to switch it to classical music when we saw Dad's car in the driveway. I started playing along to it slightly, not quite having mastered the technique for anything but the orchestra parts of Paganini._

 _Dad came through the back door, Mom greeting him with a towel in her hand and giving him a rather loud smack that was obviously a kiss._

" _Kaylin!" he called. "How was my lovely daughter while I was at work today?"_

" _I practiced my violin," I replied, setting it down in the case. I walked out to the kitchen to get a hug and a kiss._

" _Well daughter," he said after the customary hug and kiss, "would you like to come to work with me tomorrow?"_

" _I don't know," I replied plopping down in one of the chairs. "We were planning to do it the first day of summer, I thought. And the first day of summer isn't til next Monday."_

" _Ah, that's right," he nodded. "I'd forgotten. Next Monday, then."_

 _He passed me to go upstairs to change out of his work clothes. He stopped in the kitchen doorway, turning to look at me. He had a glint in his eyes that made me uncomfortable._

" _I'm very excited to have you come to the office, Kaylin," he said with a small smile._

 _He disappeared through the door, leaving me with an uncomfortable feeling in the pit of my stomach. He was going to do something. I knew it._

oOo

I came out of the memory, staring at Kurt's carpet with blurry vision. I looked up at him, tears spilling down my cheeks.

"I volunteered," I choked out, sitting completely on the floor. "I volunteered to go to his office to see it."

Kurt knelt behind me, wrapping his lanky arms around my shoulders in a sweet embrace. "It's okay, Kay-kay. We'll figure it out," he murmured into my ear. "Did you remember the song?"

I sniffled, the crying really coming on. "Yeah, it was my mom's favorite Nightwish song." I leaned my head back on his shoulder, starting to sob quietly. "I don't know what to do. I'm scared that if I go back he'll wipe my brain again and torture me more."

Kurt buried his face in my neck. "I'm willing to do anything we have to do to figure this out and fix it if we can. Do you want to go down for dinner? Logan came by a bit ago but left when he noticed how you were acting."

I sniffled again, my sobs quieting. "No, not really. I just want to sleep. I feel like I just sprinted ten miles without stopping."

"Ok," he replied. "You're welcome to sleep in my bed if you don't feel like walking all the way to your room."

I nodded, exhaustion coming over me. I felt like I didn't even have the energy to speak. Kurt moved away from my back for a few moments, coming back and gently lifting me off the floor. It was getting harder and harder to keep my eyes open by the time he carefully put me in the bed and covered me up.

"I'm going down to dinner," he said, leaving a gentle kiss on my temple. "If you're hungry when I get back up here I'll bring you something."

I nodded, barely opening my eyes. I fell asleep not long after I heard Kurt close the door.

oOo

" _Kaylin, you and your dad are going to miss your flight if you don't pick up the pace!" Mom shouted from the bottom of the stairs._

" _I'm coming!" I called back, putting a bookmark in my book and grabbing my bags off the end of my bed._

" _Your dad is in the car already," she called back._

 _I dashed down the stairs grabbing the breakfast burrito out of Mom's hand and kissing her on the cheek, calling goodbye as I dashed out the door. I climbed in the car, tossing my duffel over my shoulder into the back seat and buckling in as Dad started to move._

 _I was so excited to be going to Dad's office that I had too much excited energy to read in the car. I babbled excitedly until we were in the parking lot of Colorado Springs Airport. Once we pulled up, the magnitude of where I was going hit me and I fell silent. I was quiet all the way through security, only really talking when I had to._

 _Dad noticed my silence as we were boarding the plane. "Are you alright, Kaylin? You seem a bit anxious."_

" _Well, the idea of going to your office is a bit intimidating," I replied, feeling a tad uncomfortable. "Your office here in Colorado is a lot smaller than the one in New York. I guess I'm just a little bit intimidated."_

 _Dad gave me a small smile, tousling my hair playfully. "I'm sure you won't be intimidated by the time we get there, sweetheart."_

 _I grinned up at him. This was going to be awesome._

oOo

I rolled over to look at the clock. It read 3:30. I rubbed my eyes, the quiet in the room making my ears ring slightly. I listened a little closer, hearing a faint sound that sounded almost like purring. I peered over the edge of the bed, smiling a little at the sight of Kurt in his nest of blankets on the floor. He looked so relaxed, his breathing sounding more like a happily purring cat than a person.

I slipped out of bed, carefully stepping around Kurt and out onto the balcony. I leaned against the railing in an attempt to relax. I leaned my head back, facing towards the moon. I stood there for a while simply breathing deeply and enjoying the night air.

"You okay?" came Kurt's sleepy voice from behind me. He gently wrapped his arms around me, his sleep warmed body pressing against my back.

"Yeah, I'm okay," I replied, leaning my head to the side as Kurt gently nuzzled my neck. "Just thinking. Shouldn't you be asleep?"

Kurt shook his head, his fur tickling the side of my neck. "Yesterday was the last day of school before summer vacation."

"Yeah, but you probably have a training session with Logan," I said, leaning my head on his to make his fur stop tickling.

"I actually don't," he replied with a small chuckle. "For the first week or two we don't really train to give Logan some time off. No one is really sure, but some of the younger kids have come to the conclusion that Logan only really likes training us because he knows that we'll be able to protect ourselves."

"Well, in a world like the one we live in we really do need those skills," I replied, leaning my head against Kurt's, starting to get a little sleepy. "I would think that Logan simply likes knowing that you're all protected when he's not around. From what I've seen of him, he likes to feel sure that everyone is safe. He's a protector."

Kurt yawned, nuzzling into my neck again. "Yeah, that's true. He only seemed to be really upset at you earlier because he wanted you safe. Some of the younger ones see him as overbearing, but just think that's the only way he really knows how to show love to other people." Kurt yawned again, reaching up to cover it. "I also think that even if I don't have training with Logan in the morning that we should both go back to bed."

I nodded in response, agreeing with everything he said. "Well, you'd probably better get to bed. I'll follow in a little bit. I kind of want to stay her for a bit longer."

Kurt nodded against my neck, making me huff a small laugh at the tickling from his fur. He backed away, going back in and pulling the balcony door shut to only a crack behind him. I leaned my head back, reveling in the quiet night. I went back inside after a while, creeping out the door as quietly as I could to ensure that I didn't wake up Kurt.

I crept down the hall to Logan's room, gently tapping on the door before entering. I closed the door as quietly as I could, seeing him stir from the moonlight coming in through his balcony doors. I climbed onto the end of his bed as he sat up, rubbing his eyes.

"Is somethin' wrong, kid?" he asked, the sleep evident in his voice.

"Sort of," I replied resting my forehead on my knees that I had pulled up to my chest. "Just a question."

"Shoot."

"Were you upset at me leaving because you were scared something bad would happen to me?"

"Yeah."

Him saying that one word spoke volumes. We sat in silence for a few moments, me letting what I had just learned sink in.

Wolverine shifted a bit, deciding to say more.

"I think I was also mad because I saw so much of myself in you," he said, sounding a bit more awake. "I'm still trying to figure out a lot of my past, so having to watch you go through the same thing at such a young age made me angry. But it was anger mixed with sadness, so it made the anger worse."

"So, you're not angry at me, you're angry about my situation?" I asked, starting to wrap my head around what Wolverine said.

"Tell you what kid," said Wolverine, climbing out from under his blankets and sitting next to me. "If you find something about your past that you need to leave the property to clarify, tell me what's goin' on and I'll take you. Deal?"

He held out his hand.

"I can come to you any time?" I asked, sceptical.

"Day or night," he replied, his hand still extended.

"Deal," I said, giving his hand a firm shake.

"Now that we have a problem solved, get your ass in bed before I get you in trouble," he said, giving me a playful shove.

I rolled my eyes, smiling a little. "Okay Dad," I replied, dashing back to Kurt's room giggling all the way.


End file.
